Theoretical and experimental investigation of statistics of spatial derivatives of Stokes parameters for polarization speckle

The statistical properties of the spatial derivatives of the Stokes parameters for polarization speckle are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Based on the Gaussian assumption, the six-dimensional joint probability density function (p.d.f) for the derivatives of the Stokes parameters ( S 1 , S 2 , and S 3 ) are all derived analytically for the first time. Subsequently, three two-dimensional p.d.f of derivatives for each Stokes parameters and the corresponding six marginal p.d.f are also given. Based on polar-interferometry, experiments have also been conducted to demonstrate the validity of the principle.