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.
Gori
Franco
F
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università Roma Tre and CNR-INFM, Via della Vasca Navale 84, I-00146 Rome, Italy. gori@uniroma3.it
Santarsiero
Massimo
M
Borghi
Riccardo
R
Wolf
Emil
E