OSA's Digital Library

Journal of the Optical Society of America A

Journal of the Optical Society of America A

| OPTICS, IMAGE SCIENCE, AND VISION

  • Editor: Franco Gori
  • Vol. 29, Iss. 6 — Jun. 1, 2012
  • pp: 989–993

Optics InfoBase > JOSA A > Volume 29 > Issue 6 > Page 989

Generalized Gouy phase for focused partially coherent light and its implications for interferometry

Xiaoyan Pang, David G. Fischer, and Taco D. Visser  »View Author Affiliations


JOSA A, Vol. 29, Issue 6, pp. 989-993 (2012)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.29.000989


View Full Text Article

Enhanced HTML    Acrobat PDF (310 KB)


Advanced Search

Browse Journals / Lookup Meetings

Browse by Journal and Year


   


Lookup Conference Papers

Close Browse Journals / Lookup Meetings

Article Tools

Share
Citations

Abstract

The Gouy phase, sometimes called the phase anomaly, is the remarkable effect that in the region of focus a converging wave field undergoes a rapid phase change by an amount of π, compared to the phase of a plane wave of the same frequency. This phenomenon plays a crucial role in any application where fields are focused, such as optical coherence tomography, mode selection in laser resonators, and interference microscopy. However, when the field is spatially partially coherent, as is often the case, its phase is a random quantity. When such a field is focused, the Gouy phase is therefore undefined. The correlation properties of partially coherent fields are described by their so-called spectral degree of coherence. We demonstrate that this coherence function does exhibit a generalized Gouy phase. Its precise behavior in the focal region depends on the transverse coherence length. We show that this effect influences the fringe spacing in interference experiments in a nontrivial manner.

© 2012 Optical Society of America

OCIS Codes
(030.1640) Coherence and statistical optics : Coherence
(050.1960) Diffraction and gratings : Diffraction theory
(120.3940) Instrumentation, measurement, and metrology : Metrology
(180.3170) Microscopy : Interference microscopy

ToC Category:
Coherence and Statistical Optics

History
Original Manuscript: March 16, 2012
Manuscript Accepted: March 27, 2012
Published: May 23, 2012

Citation
Xiaoyan Pang, David G. Fischer, and Taco D. Visser, "Generalized Gouy phase for focused partially coherent light and its implications for interferometry," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 29, 989-993 (2012)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/josaa/abstract.cfm?URI=josaa-29-6-989

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

« Previous Article  |  Next Article »

OSA is a member of CrossRef.

CrossCheck Deposited