On the Thompson-Wolf Experiment: a study with laser sources

D. P. Barato; M. L. Calvo

doi:10.2971/jeos.2010.10051s

Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid publications, Vol 5 (2010)

On the Thompson-Wolf Experiment: a study with laser sources

D. P. Barato, M. L. Calvo

Abstract

We present a revisited study of the Thompson-Wolf experiment earlier developed in 1957, with the aim to characterize the degree of spatial coherence of a luminous source. We develop further experiments by using laser sources under various modal regimes. We analyze the experimental results.

Full Text: PDF

Citation Details

Cite this article

References

A. Einstein, "Zur Quantentheorie der strahlung" Phys. Z. 18, 121 (1917) in german.

D. ter Haar, On the Quantum Theory of Radiation, The Old Quantum Theory (Pergamon Press, New York, 1967).

S. Chandrasekhar, Radiative Transfer (New York, Dover, 1960).

F. Zernike, "Phase contrast, a new method for the microscopic ob- servation of transpsrent objects" Physica 9, 686 (1938).

P. H. van Cittert, "Die Wahrscheinliche Schwingungsverteilung in Einer von Einer Lichtquelle Direkt Oder Mittels Einer Linse Beleuchteten Ebene" Physica 1, 201 (1934).

D. Gabor, "Theory of communication" J. Inst. Elect. Eng. 93 429 (1949).

D. Gabor, "Optical Transmission" in Proceedings of the Third Lon- don Conference on Information Theory C. Cherry, ed. (Butterworth Scientific Publications, London, 1956).

C. E. Shannon, "A mathematical theory of communication" Bell Syst. Tech. J. 27, 379 and 623, (1948).

B. Thompson, and E. Wolf, "Two-Beam Interference with Partially Coherent Light" J. Opt. Soc. Am. 47, 895 (1957).

E. Wolf, "A Macroscopic Theory of Interference and Diffraction of Light from Finite Sources" Nature 172, 535 (1953).

E. Wolf, "Early days of coherence theory and the First Rochester Conference on coherence" in A Jewel on the Crown - 75th Anniver- sary Essays, C. R. Stroud Jr. ed. (The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, 2004).

M.Bertolotti,B.Daino,F.Gori,andD.Sette,"Coherenceproperties of a laser beam" Nuovo Cimento 38, 1505 (1965).

M. Bertolotti, B. Crosignani, P. Di Porto, and D. Sette, "Coherence and statistical properties of a two-mode laser beam" Phys. Rev. 150, 1054 (1966).

B. E. A. Saleh, A. F. Abouraddy, A. V. Sergienko, and M. C. Teich, "Duality between partial coherence and partial entanglement" Phys. Rev. A 62, 043816 (2000).

A. F. Abouraddy, B. E. A. Saleh, A. V. Sergienko, and M. C. Teich, "Double-slit interference of biphotons generated in spontaneous parametric downconversion from a thick crystal" J. Opt. B: Quantum S. O. 3, S50 (2001).

S. Chitralekha, K. V. Avudainayagam, and S. V. Pappu, "Role of spatial coherence on the rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes: an experimental study" Appl. Opt. 28, 345 (1989).

M. E. Mancenido, G. Pozzi, L. Zunino, and M. Garavaglia, "Young interferential experiments with filamentary light sources" Proc. SPIE 3190, 290 (1997).

Y. Liu, M. Seminario, F. G. Tomasel, C. Chang, J. J. Rocca, and D. T. Attwood, "Achievement of essentially full spatial coherence in a high-average-power soft-x-ray laser" Phys. Rev. A 63, 033802 (2001).

K. M. Rosfjord, Y. Liu, and D. T. Attwood, "Tunable Coherent Soft X-Rays" IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quant 10, 1405 (2004).

H. Lichte, "Electron interference: mystery and reality" Philos. T. R. Soc. Lond., 360, 897 (2002).

F. J. Duarte, "Coherent electrically excited organic semiconductors: coherent or laser emission?" Appl. Phys. B 90, 101 (2008).

E. Wolf, "A Macroscopic Theory of Interference and Diffraction of Light from Finite Sources. I. Fields with a Narrow Spectral Range" P. Roy. Soc. A-Math. Phy. 255, 1160 (1954).

M.Bass,C.DeCusatis,J.Enoch,V.Lakshminarayanan,G.Li,C.Mac- donald, V. Mahajan, and E. Van Stryland, Handbook of Optics, Third Edition, Volume I: Geometrical and Physical Optics, Polarized Light, Components and Instruments(set) (McGraw-Hill, Inc., USA, 2010).

L. Mandel, and E. Wolf, Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995).

A. S. Marathay, Elements of Optical Coherence Theory (John Wiley & Sons, 1982).

M. A. Alonso, O. Korotkova, and E. Wolf, "Propagation of the elec- tric correlation matrix and the van Cittert-Zernike theorem for ran- dom electromagnetic fields" J. Mod. Opt. 53, 7 (2006).

T. Setälä, A. Schevchenko, M.Kaivola, and A. T. Friberg, "Degree of polarization for optical near fields" Phys. Rev. E 66, 016615 (2002).

E. Wolf, "Coherence and polarization properties of electromagnetic laser modes" Opt. Commun. 265, 60 (2006)

K. Kim, and E. Wolf, "A scalar-mode representation of stochastic, planar, electromagnetic sources" Opt. Commun. 261, 19 (2006).