Phase-space approach to lensless measurements of optical field correlations

We analyze and test a general approach for efficiently measuring space-variant partially coherent quasi-monochromatic fields using only amplitude masks and free propagation. A phase-space description is presented to analyze approaches of this type and understand their limitations. Three variants of the method are discussed and compared, the first using an aperture mask, the second employing both an obstacle (the exact inverse of the aperture) and a clear mask, and the last combining the previous two. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each option.