Van Cittert-Zernike theorem with Stokes parameters
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Published on: July 19, 2016
Jani Tervo1, Tero Setälä, Jari Turunen
1Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, Joensuu FI-80101, Finland. jani.tervo@uef.fi
Abstract:
We formulate the van Cittert-Zernike theorem for spatially incoherent partially polarized sources in terms of the traditional polarization (one-point) Stokes parameters and the coherence (two-point) Stokes parameters. This leads to a physically insightful connection between the source polarization and the field coherence. We show that the far-zone coherence is given by a Fourier relation of the source-plane polarization and apply the results to investigate the far-zone properties of a field emitted by an incoherent source limited by an annular aperture.
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