Effects of coherence on the degree of polarization in a young interference pattern.
Recent predictions concerning the relationship between the degree of polarization at a typical point of a Young interference pattern and the degree of coherence of the electromagnetic field at the pinholes are tested by a simple experiment. In particular, it is shown that light that is completely unpolarized at the pinholes can become partially polarized across the fringe pattern.
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università Roma Tre and CNR-INFM, Via della Vasca Navale 84, I-00146 Rome, Italy. gori@uniroma3.it
Franco
F
Gori
Massimo
M
Santarsiero
Riccardo
R
Borghi
Emil
E
Wolf