On-axis polarization of beams radiated by electromagnetic circularly coherent sources

Abstract

On-axis spectral density and degree of polarization of beams radiated by electromagnetic (EM) sources with circular correlations are shown to be finely controlled by changing the source parameters. We reveal, in particular, that in this beam class, unlike for all previously known stationary beams, it is possible to control independently the dynamics of the on-axis spectral density and the degree of polarization. This was enabled by the obtained analytical expression for the on-axis polarization matrix, derived for general EM sources with circular coherence and Gaussian spectral density across the source plane. A simple experimental scheme for generating a broad class of EM circularly coherent sources is devised involving only a line source, a lens, and a transparency, possibly anisotropic.