Mayukh Lahiri
Physics & Astronomy
Coherence and Polarization Properties of Stochastic Optical Fields
Tuesday, July 12
12:00- 1:00 PM
Goergen 101
All optical fields, whether found in nature or generated in laboratories, have some random fluctuations associated with them. Even though these fluctuations are too rapid to be observed directly, their existence can be experienced by experiments which involve effects of correlations among the fluctuating fields. Coherence and polarization are two basic properties of light, which are manifestations of such correlations. In this presentation some topics on theories of coherence and polarization of light will be discussed. These theories have been formulated in two different domains, the space-time and the space-frequency domains. We will elucidate the relationship between the theories in the two domains. We will show how the coherence properties of light may play an important role in determining structures of random media. We will also show how the polarization properties of light can be analyzed by quantum theory of electromagnetic fields.
