Exploring Light's Polarization States: Longitudinal, Temporal, and Scalar

[jk22]

I heard that light in a medium can have longitudinal polarization i.e the e field in the direction of propagation, but i saw in a qed course that light can have temporal or scalar polarization (the E0 component). What is that one and how can one obtain this kind of polarization experimentally ?
Thanks.

 

[Andy Resnick]

The 'near field' generally has a longitudinal component- this is a non-propagating mode. Anything that generates an EM field is said to be 'covered' by the near field.

You will likely learn more about this in the RF and antenna design literature.

 

[DrDu]

Modes with longitudinal polarization can also occur for light propagating in media. They are called there plasmon-polaritons.