Open AccessThe van Cittert-Zernike theorem for electromagnetic fields
Author(s) -
Andrey S. Ostrovsky,
G. Martínez-Niconoff,
P. Martínez-Vara,
Miguel Á. Olvera-Santamaría
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.001746
Subject(s) - physics , degree of coherence , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , electromagnetic field , zernike polynomials , polarization (electrochemistry) , coherence theory , optics , scalar (mathematics) , coherence length , quantum mechanics , mathematics , geometry , chemistry , superconductivity , wavefront
The van Cittert-Zernike theorem, well known for the scalar optical fields, is generalized for the case of vector electromagnetic fields. The deduced theorem shows that the degree of coherence of the electromagnetic field produced by the completely incoherent vector source increases on propagation whereas the degree of polarization remains unchanged. The possible application of the deduced theorem is illustrated by an example of optical simulation of partially coherent and partially polarized secondary source with the controlled statistical properties.