Abstract

Far-zone range criteria are derived for the radiant intensity and imaginary and real parts of the cross-spectral density function characterizing the radiation field of a partially coherent, quasihomogenous radiation source. These criteria, derived from Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction theory, specify minimum ranges that must be exceeded to obtain accurate far-zone measurements of the aforementioned field quantities. Specific range criteria are calculated (in terms of the wave number, source coherence length, and source dimension) for sources having a Gaussian and negative exponential intensity distribution. These calculations indicate order-of-magnitude, far-zone criteria for general source-intensity distributions.

© 1978 Optical Society of America

The radiant intensity from planar sources of any state of coherence

E. Wolf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 68(11) 1597-1605 (1978)

Atmospheric propagation of partially coherent radiation*

J. Carl Leader
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 68(2) 175-185 (1978)

Coherence and radiometry with quasihomogeneous planar sources*

W. H. Carter and E. Wolf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(6) 785-796 (1977)

Far-zone approximation for partially coherent sources

Franco Gori
Opt. Lett. 30(21) 2840-2842 (2005)

Coherence and polarization properties of far fields generated by quasi-homogeneous planar electromagnetic sources

Olga Korotkova, Brian G. Hoover, Victor L. Gamiz, and Emil Wolf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 22(11) 2547-2556 (2005)