Degree of polarization in near fields of thermal sources: effects of surface waves

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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Science | A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Date
2002
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
123902
Series
Physical Review Letters, Volume 88, Issue 12
Abstract
We introduce the concept of degree of polarization for electromagnetic near fields. The approach is based on the generalized Stokes parameters that appear as expansion coefficients of the 3×3 coherence matrix in terms of the Gell-Mann matrices. The formalism is applied to optical near fields of thermally fluctuating half-space sources with particular interest in fields that are strongly polarized owing to resonant surface plasmons or phonons. This novel method is particularly useful when assessing the full vectorial characteristics of random evanescent fields, e.g., for near-field spectroscopy and polarization microscopy.
Description
Keywords
electromagnetic near fields, degree of polarization, thermal sources, surface waves, polarization properties
Citation
Setälä, Tero & Kaivola, Matti & Friberg, Ari T.. 2002. Degree of polarization in near fields of thermal sources: effects of surface waves. Physical Review Letters. Volume 88, Issue 12, 123902. 1079-7114 (electronic). 0031-9007 (printed). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.123902.