Polarization eigenstates of radiation in an optical resonator with a uniformly rotating phase plate

An analysis is made of the polarization eigenstates of radiation in an optical resonator with a uniformly rotating phase plate. It is shown that the normal modes of this resonator are elliptically polarized, the ellipticity of radiation extracted through different resonator mirrors being different. The major axes of the polarization ellipses rotate uniformly at the rotation frequency of the phase plate. The matrix of the phase plate is obtained allowing for rotation of its natural axes and the limiting modulation frequency of the radiation polarization using an intracavity phase modulator is estimated.