In this work a new type of partially polarized and partially coherent sources is proposed. The coherence characteristics of these sources are dependent on the difference of the radial distances from the source center of the two points to be compared. The coherence is perfect for points located on the same circle centered on the source center and decreases for points that belongs to different concentric circles. The maximum attainable coherence is related to the degree of polarization of the source. Coherence and polarization characteristics of this kind of fields at the source plane and upon free space propagation are analyzed in detail for a simple case. For the particular presented example, a partially polarized and partially coherent field is obtained, whose polarization properties are invariant in propagation.

Date Published: 22 August 2017
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 10453, Third International Conference on Applications of Optics and Photonics, 104531N (22 August 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2272154

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10453:
Third International Conference on Applications of Optics and Photonics
Manuel Filipe P. C. M. Martins Costa, Editor(s)