75713 20181107105320.0 doi 10.1103/PhysRevA.95.053856 sideral 101074 ART-2017-101074 eng (orcid)0000-0003-1740-2244 Gil, José J. Structure of polarimetric purity of three-dimensional polarization states 2017 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted It has recently been demonstrated that a general three-dimensional (3D) polarization state cannot be considered an incoherent superposition of (1) a pure state, (2) a two-dimensional unpolarized state, and (3) a 3D unpolarized state [J. J. Gil, Phys. Rev. A 90, 043858 (2014)10.1103/PhysRevA.90.043858]. This fact is intimately linked to the existence of 3D polarization states with fluctuating directions of propagation, but whose associated polarization matrices R satisfy rank R=2. In this work, such peculiar states are analyzed and characterized, leading to a meaningful general classification and interpretation of 3D polarization states. Within this theoretical framework, the interrelations among the more significant polarization descriptors presented in the literature, as well as their respective physical interpretations, are studied and illustrated with examples, providing a better understanding of the structure of polarimetric purity of any kind of polarization state. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E99 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/FIS2014-58303-P info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess All rights reserved http://www.europeana.eu/rights/rr-f/ 2.909 2017 OPTICS 23 / 94 = 0.245 2017 Q1 T1 PHYSICS, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR & CHEMICAL 12 / 36 = 0.333 2017 Q2 T2 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Friberg, Ari T. Setälä, Tero San José, Ignacio 95, 5 (2017), 053856 [10 pp] Phys. rev., A PHYSICAL REVIEW A 2469-9926 129277 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/75713/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 110520 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/75713/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:75713 articulos driver 2018-11-07-09:57:14 ARTICLE