Abstract:We focus on a comparison between the classical and quantum descriptions of the degree of polarization of an optical field. A quantum field containing photons with various states of polarization and which propagate in the same direction in free space one after another (a so called photon beam) is analyzed. We show that the formulated definition of degree of polarization for this quantum field leads to a measurable quantity. The concept of a thought experiment is presented. PACS

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Abstract:In this paper the authors discuss an alternative way for reconstructing one-photon mixed states of a partially polarized optical field. The task is to represent the probability density distribution describing these kind of states with the Stokes parameters which also characterize the effective state of polarization. These parameters can be measured by means of the degree of polarization with an experimental setup containing a rotating linear polarizer and a circular polarizer. A thought experiment is presented which assumes that the measurement is undertaken on an analyzed beam coupled with a reference beam containing photons polarized in a well-known way. The method discussed in the paper is an alternative for the most commonly used quantum tomography approach. PACS