Abstract

We assess the degree of coherence of vectorial electromagnetic fields in the space–frequency domain as the distance between the cross-spectral density matrix and the identity matrix representing completely incoherent light. This definition is compared with previous approaches. It is shown that this distance provides an upper bound for the degree of coherence and visibility for any pair of scalar waves obtained by linear combinations of the original fields. This same approach emerges when applying a previous definition of global coherence to a Young interferometer.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Overall degree of coherence for vectorial electromagnetic fields and the Wigner function

Alfredo Luis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 24(7) 2070-2074 (2007)

Coherence and visibility for vectorial light

Alfredo Luis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 27(8) 1764-1769 (2010)

Degree of coherence for electromagnetic fields

Jani Tervo, Tero Setälä, and Ari T. Friberg
Opt. Express 11(10) 1137-1143 (2003)

Spatial correlations and degree of polarization in homogeneous electromagnetic fields

Tero Setälä, Matti Kaivola, and Ari T. Friberg
Opt. Lett. 28(13) 1069-1071 (2003)

Relation between degrees of coherence for electromagnetic fields

Rosario Martínez-Herrero and Pedro M. Mejías
Opt. Lett. 32(11) 1504-1506 (2007)