Poincaré sphere of electromagnetic spatial coherence

Abstract

We introduce a Poincaré sphere construction for geometrical representation of the state of two-point spatial coherence in random electromagnetic (vectorial) beams. To this end, a novel descriptor of coherence is invoked, which shares some important mathematical properties with the polarization matrix and spans a new type of Stokes parameter space. The coherence Poincaré sphere emerges as a geometric interpretation of this novel formalism, which is developed for uniformly and nonuniformly fully polarized beams. The construction is extended to partially polarized beams as well and is demonstrated with a field having separable spatial coherence and polarization characteristics. At a single point, the coherence Poincaré sphere reduces to the conventional polarization Poincaré sphere for any state of partial polarization.