Circularly Polarized Light Explained

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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.

[chromax]

ahahah i laughed so hard 5:23 that you were tryna say wtf politely

[멍멍이-oy]

5:20
Only this remained in my brain for the whole day 😂😂😂

[jarredgrant]

Came for the video, stayed for "what the fuck"

[Ana]

Please make more videos . Very clear concise and useful information

[SciencewithSteph]

Thanks for this! I was looking for a succinct way to explain circularly polarised light and I ended up linking this video in mine to supplement my explanation of polarised light!

[shiroma]

Very, very nice explanation. Thanks for being so clear and nice. About the elliptical polarised light, I could not find it. If you still have this video I will be glad watching this too.

[wolfy]

It's clear, short, efficient. Thank you very much !

[sumantchopde]

Thanks a lot! I've an exam tomorrow and you cleared all my doubts! Very clear explanation!

[apoorvsom]

Awesome explaination Jordan! Thank you very much. It helped me a lot for my physics exam

[尻槍文]

Fantastic explanation sir, you’ve made circularly polarization more understandable.And I am wondering how you plot the circular polarization using Mathematica in 4:04, thank you.

[meetoptics]

Congratulations for being able of introducing this technology to society through these videos. This platform let us spread all we know about the field and from MEETOPTICS we are proud to be part of the photonics community and to help engineers and researchers in their search for optical lenses through our site. We celebrate every step forward.

[ketyaportela]

Thank you for your video. I'm a French student and there is no video of this subject in my language. Yours videos are very helpful!

[whysoserious]

You are better than Kasap optoelectronics book!

[ninakanska]

Gosh I love you. You explained it so so well. Saving my physics degree haha.

[pllagunos]

Damn that Mathematica plot is cool! Could you share it? I've been trying to replicate it, but so far I haven't been successful

[deepinmoutain]

this is the best explanation! thank you!

[mtahirasam]

Jordan, Hope you will be fine. Can I get the mathematica file of this circularly polarized wave?

[eugenetruman]

Great explaining. Too bad there is no elliptical polarization video.

[manmohanbisht]

Oops what the f.
That was funny..
Nicely explained

[밤고구마-zi]

I like the way of your lesson. Thanks a lot!!!