Luis Aina, Alfredo2023-06-202023-06-202002-07-151050-294710.1103/PhysRevA.66.013806https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/59673©2002 The American Physical SocietyQuantum optics entails polarization properties that cannot be fully described by the classical Stokes parameters. In this work, we characterize the polarization of classical as well as quantum fields by means of a probability distribution on the Poincare sphere. This serves to define the degree of polarization of a field state as the distance between the corresponding polarization distribution and the uniform distribution representing unpolarized light. We apply this definition to relevant quantum field states such as SU(2) coherent, squeezed, number, and phase states.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.66.013806http://journals.aps.org/open access535Discrete wigner functionQuasi-probability distributionsPhase uncertainty relationsLossless beam splitterDensity-matrixHomodyne tomographyAtomic statesOperational approachPhoton statisticsUnpolarized lightÓptica (Física)2209.19 Óptica Física