DescriptionPolarisation (Circular).svg	The direction of the helix relative to the central axis represents the direction of the electric field of the circularly polarized light at each point in space. The blue and red lines are projections of the helix onto two planes at right angles. There is an version which is identical to this original with the exception of phase indictors to make the phase relationship of its components clearer. Refer to Other Versions section below.
Date	12/02/07
Source	Own drawing down in Mathematica, edited in the open source program Inscape.   This W3C-unspecified vector image was created with Inkscape .
Author	inductiveload
Permission (Reusing this file)	Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
Other versions	Derivative works of this file:  Polarisation (Circular) With Phase Indicators.svg Linear polarisation Elliptical polarisation

Mathematica Code

This figure requires the use of Arrow3D, which is not included in the StandardPackages (as of Feb 2007). This can be obtained from Wolfram Research at this location. The required packages are:

<< Graphics`
<< Arrow3D`Arrow3D`

The code is:

wavefunction = ParametricPlot3D[{Sin[4t], -Cos[4t], t}, {t, 0, 5}, 
BoxRatios -> {1, 1, 4}, ImageSize -> 400, Boxed -> False, Axes -> 
    False, PlotPoints -> 600, ViewPoint -> {2, 2, 2}, PlotRange -> All]

repsi = ParametricPlot3D[{Sin[4t], -1, t, RGBColor[1, 0, 0]}, {t, 0, 5}, 
    BoxRatios -> {4, 1, 1}, ImageSize -> 500,
     Boxed -> False, Axes -> False, PlotPoints -> 600, PlotRange -> All]

impsi = ParametricPlot3D[{-1, -Cos[4t], t, RGBColor[0, 0, 102/255]}, {t, 0, \
5}, BoxRatios -> {4, 1, 1}, ImageSize -> 500, Boxed -> False, Axes -> False, 
      PlotPoints -> 600, PlotRange -> All]

end = ParametricPlot3D[{Sin[t], -Cos[t], 0}, {t, 0, 
    2π}, BoxRatios -> {4, 1, 1}, ImageSize -> 500, Boxed -> False, 
    Axes -> False, PlotPoints -> 600, PlotRange -> All]

xaxis = Graphics3D[Arrow3D[{0, 0, -1}, {0, 
  0, 6}, HeadSize -> UniformSize[.5], HeadColor -> Black]]

uaxis = Graphics3D[Arrow3D[{0, -1, 0}, {0, 3, 0}, HeadSize -> 
    UniformSize[.5], HeadColor -> Black]]

vaxis = Graphics3D[Arrow3D[{-1, 0, 0}, {3, 0, 0}, HeadSize -> 
    UniformSize[.5], HeadColor -> Black]]

plane = Graphics3D[Polygon[{{1.2, 1.2, 0}, {1.2, -1.2,
   0}, {-1.2, -1.2, 0}, {-1.2, 1.2, 0}}]]

crate = WireFrame[Graphics3D[Cuboid[{1, 1, 0}, {-1, -1, 5}]]]

Show[wavefunction, xaxis, uaxis, vaxis, plane, repsi, impsi, end, crate]