Abstract

The theory of partially coherent light is extended to cover time-varying fields observed by a detector with time constant T. The response of an interferometric optical discriminator is examined. The system uses a two-beam interferometer with transit time difference τ. The curves presented show discriminator response to step-function optical frequency shifts as a function of τ/T. They point to two conclusions, valid for τ/T > 10⁻¹: (i) initial and final states, and exponential detector response, neglecting mutual coherence theory, fail to explain dynamic behavior; (ii) multiple-fringe step-function frequency shifts are stretched over a period τ, permitting fringe counting.

© 1971 Optical Society of America

Derivation of the General Expression for the Heterodyne Output Voltage of a Photoresistive Detector

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