Question

Consider a right circularly polarized light and a left circularly polarized light having common angular frequency and wave number both propagating in the z - direction. a). Write out the appropriate expressions representing right circularly polarized light and a left circularly polarized light respectively. b) Combine the two waves and state the conditions under which the combination to yield a plane wave. Show all work.

Answer 1

The expression for a circularly polarized light right and left hannded are the real part of

Respectively.

The left circularly polarized

And taking the real part

The right circularly polarized

And taking the real part

b) The equation of a plane wave is

If we combine our two waves

So, first, is obvius that we need that , therefore

Now we need that

So the condition are:

• The phases of the waves must be the same
• The amplitude of the waves must be the same