Circularly Polarized Light Explained

  / edmundsj  
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How can light travel in a circle? In this video, we explore circular polarization, where the electric and magnetic fields of a plane wave trace out a circle in space. We also go over the Jones vectors for right-hand circularly polarized and left-hand circularly polarized light, and hopefully clear up some of the confusion around the conventions used.

This is part of my graduate series on optoelectronics / photonics, and is based primarily on Coldren's book on Lasers as well as graduate-level coursework I have taken in the EECS department at UC Berkeley.

Hope you found this video helpful, please post in the comments below anything I can do to improve future videos, or suggestions you have for future videos.