Can a single photon have different kinds of polarization?

[San K]

can a single photon have different kinds of polarization?

say linearly polarized along x-axis
circular polarized along y-axis
mixed polarized along z-axis

actually mixed polarization in a single photon (along a particular axis) cannot happen, right?

it can only happen in a beam (which consists of many photons)

 

[xts]

No...

 

[genneth]

See Bloch sphere or Poincaré sphere: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincaré_sphere