Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-optics-and-electrodynamics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-1/4/d/solution

Unpolarized incident light has equal, mutually incoherent - and -polarized intensities. Both components scatter into the same direction , so their coherency matrices add to
This matrix has rank one when the signal is nonzero. The light is therefore fully linearly polarized along , with
A fixed highly anisotropic needle can act as a polarizing scatterer even for unpolarized input. The equality of total intensities with (c) does not mean the incident states were identical. These conclusions use the leading longitudinal-polarizability approximation; finite transverse response can change the polarization purity.

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