Abstract

Starting from the Culgoora paradox, the number of degrees of freedom of an image from a pupil of point-like elements has been determined. The influence of the pupil geometry and of the coherence characteristics has been examined. The results show that striking differences can exist between coherent and incoherent illumination.

© 1971 Optical Society of America

Degrees of Freedom of an Image

G. Toraldo di Francia
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(7) 799-804 (1969)

Degrees of freedom of images from point-like-element pupils

F. Gori and G. Guattari
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 64(4) 453-458 (1974)

Degrees of freedom, and eigenfunctions, for the noisy image

M. Bendinelli, A. Consortini, L. Ronchi, and B. Roy Frieden
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 64(11) 1498-1502 (1974)

Effective number of degrees of freedom of partially coherent sources

A. Starikov
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 72(11) 1538-1544 (1982)

Degrees of freedom of an optical image in coherent illumination, in the presence of aberrations

F. Gori, S. Paolucci, and Laura Ronchi
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(5) 495-501 (1975)