Parametric characterization of the spatial structure of partially coherent and partially polarized beams

On the basis of the second-order intensity moments formalism, the relationship between the spatial structure and the overall polarization characteristics of partially polarized Gaussian Schell-model beams of a certain kind has been investigated. More specifically, attention has been focused on a type of source that cannot be distinguished from ordinary Gaussian Schell-model fields when polarization measurements are disregarded. For this class of beams several general properties have been obtained that enable us to link the beam coherence polarization matrix and the beam quality parameter with certain polarization degrees recently introduced in the literature.