Eur. Phys. J. D 54, 95-101 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2009-00166-9

Propagation of partially polarized, partially coherent beams in uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis

Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, 150001, Harbin, P.R. China

Corresponding author: ^a cn_liudajun@163.com

Received: 8 January 2009
Revised: 30 March 2009
Published online: 6 June 2009

Abstract

The propagation of partially polarized and partially coherent beams in uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis is investigated. The analytical formulae for the elements of the cross-spectral density matrix of partially polarized and partially coherent beams propagating through uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical are derived. The numerical results show that the degree of polarization decreases with the increase of the ratio of extraordinary to ordinary refractive indices at a certain propagation distance, and the influence of uniaxial crystals on the degree of coherent is not so evident. And the beams spread more rapidly in the direction parallel to the optical axis than orthogonal to the optical axis in positive crystal with the propagation distance increasing.