Central-moment description of polarization for quantum states of light

We present a moment expansion for the systematic characterization of the polarization properties of quantum states of light. Specifically, we link the method to the measurements of the Stokes operator in different directions on the Poincaré sphere and provide a scheme for polarization tomography without resorting to full-state tomography. We apply these ideas to the experimental first- and second-order polarization characterization of some two-photon quantum states. In addition, we show that there are classes of states whose polarization characteristics are dominated not by their first-order moments (i.e., the Stokes vector) but by higher-order polarization moments. © 2012 American Physical Society