  We define a Hermitian phase operator for zero mass spin one particles
(photons) by taking account polarization. The Hilbert space includes the
positive helicity states and negative helicity states with opposite circular
polarization. We define an operator which corresponds to the physical process
of reversing the sense of polarization and acts as a bridge between positive
helicity states and negative helicity states. The exponential phase operator
obtained using the entire set is unitary and acts as ladder operator over all
the states. The phase operator derived from this exponential operator satisfies
the canonical commutation relations with the number operator. We have
calculated the density matrix and the phase probability distribution of various
states like coherent states, squeezed states and thermal states, to illustrate
the utility of our operator.
