Two-point polarization correlations of random paraxial and nonparaxial electromagnetic fields

Abstract

We investigate the two-point polarization correlation properties of random, statistically stationary, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic fields. To this end two specific mutual polarization correlation functions are introduced, one based on a geometric approach using the Poincaré vectors and the other on the energy distribution employing the Jones vectors. Both approaches provide equivalent information about the space-time polarization correlations and enable one to associate with the field a polarization length over which the equal-time polarization states remain essentially unchanged. For fields obeying Gaussian statistics, the polarization correlation functions take on simple forms in terms of measurable quantities representing electromagnetic coherence. The formalism is demonstrated with two examples: blackbody radiation inside a cavity and in the far zone of a cavity wall aperture.