Reconstruction of longitudinal distributed incoherent sources

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Statistical Optics
• Image Reconstruction

Background:

• Characterizing random light sources is crucial for applications in imaging and remote sensing.
• Understanding the relationship between source properties and emitted light coherence is an ongoing area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for measuring the degree of coherence of light emitted from a random source.
• To demonstrate the reconstruction of a 3D light source's intensity distribution using coherence measurements.

Main Methods:

• Measurement of the degree of coherence between in-plane pairs of points along radial lines.
• Utilizing the proportionality between measured coherence and the Fourier transform of the source's 3D intensity distribution.
• Applying inverse Fourier transform principles for source shape reconstruction.

Main Results:

• The degree of coherence was found to be proportional to the paraxial far-zone Fourier transform of the source's 3D intensity distribution.
• Successful reconstruction of the source shape from the measured degree of coherence was demonstrated.
• The method provides a non-invasive way to characterize complex light sources.

Conclusions:

• The degree of coherence measurement serves as a powerful tool for characterizing random light sources.
• This technique enables the reconstruction of the three-dimensional intensity distribution of light sources.
• The findings have implications for advanced optical imaging and metrology.