Abstract

A class of uncertainty relations for partially coherent light is derived; the uncertainty relations in this class express the fact that the product of the effective widths of the space-domain intensity and the spatial-frequency-domain intensity of the light has a lower bound and that this lower bound is inversely proportional to the overall degree of coherence. The different members of this class of uncertainty relations correspond to different choices of the quantity that measures the overall degree of coherence. One particular uncertainty relation has the property of being compatible with the ordinary uncertainty principle; the corresponding overall degree of coherence might therefore be considered the best possible choice of all the quantities that measure the overall degree of coherence of the light.

© 1984 Optical Society of America

Uncertainty principle for partially coherent light

Martin J. Bastiaans
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(3) 251-255 (1983)

Uncertainty principle and informational entropy for partially coherent light

Martin J. Bastiaans
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(8) 1243-1246 (1986)

Lower bound in the uncertainty principle for partially coherent light

Martin J. Bastiaans
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(10) 1320-1324 (1983)

Application of the Wigner distribution function to partially coherent light

Martin J. Bastiaans
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(8) 1227-1238 (1986)

Uncertainty principle for spatially quasi-stationary, partially coherent light

Martin J. Bastiaans
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 72(10) 1441-1443 (1982)