Open AccessSpace-time coherence of polychromatic propagation-invariant fields
Author(s) -
Jari Turunen
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.16.020283
Subject(s) - physics , optics , conical surface , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , transverse plane , monochromatic color , coherence theory , coherence length , coherence time , geometry , quantum mechanics , mathematics , laser , superconductivity , structural engineering , engineering
Polychromatic stationary propagation-invariant fields with complete spatial coherence in the space-frequency domain are considered. In general, the field is shown to be spatially partially coherent in the space-time domain, apart from transversely achromatic fields with complete transverse coherence. Particular attention is paid to fields that possess the same cone angle at each frequency; these are stationary counterparts of pulsed conical fields known as X waves. It is shown that, for such fields, the radius of the space-time-domain transverse coherence area depends critically on the bandwidth of the power spectrum and can be comparable to the central-lobe radius of the monochromatic field component at the peak frequency of the spectrum.