Characterising partially coherent optical fields

Abstract

The characterisation of optical elds is an essential task in understanding propagation and interaction with optical elements. The coherence of an optical eld is an important factor in the consideration of a suitable characterisation method and traditional characterisation methods are unsuitable for characterisation for some elds across the coherence spectrum. Partially coherent beams have an unstable intensity distribution that changes randomly over time and an averaging function is more suitable to represent them. The Wigner Distribution Function (WDF) is a phase-space function that employs the mutual coherence function and can be used to represent and characterise beams across the entire coherence spectrum. Using theoretical and experimental simulations, we employ the WDF in characterising both coherent beams and partially coherent beams. The simulations yield comparable characterisation parameters and the parameters are also determined from a physical WDF generation experiment.