Stoke parameters and incoherent light

[Wminus]

Hi. There is one thing I don't understand: Why do stoke's parameters and all the Jones calculus business apply only to incoherent light? I don't understand how it can work on incoherent light, while fail to work on e.g. monochromatic light.

Or am I just confused? All answers appreciated.

 

[vanhees71]

Why should they fail in any case? They are the comprehensive description of all kinds of electromagnetic waves. The Wikipedia article is pretty good. Which point don't you understand?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hi. There is one thing I don't understand: Why do stoke's parameters and all the Jones calculus business apply only to incoherent light? I don't understand how it can work on incoherent light, while fail to work on e.g. monochromatic light.

I think you are confused- the Jones calculus *only* applies to *fully coherent* light. The Mueller calculus (Stokes vector) is more general and can describe partially polarized light. Consequently, there is a unique mapping of Jones vectors to Stokes vectors, but not the reverse.

 

[Wminus]

OK, I see. thanks guys.

BTW, randomly polarized light is always incoherent, right?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Yes, by definition.