Synthesis of hybrid spatial coherence

Appl Opt. 1999 Jul 10;38(20):4279-80. doi: 10.1364/ao.38.004279.

Abstract

Spatial coherence plays a major role in characterizing quasi-monochromatic, partially coherent, optical signals. Here a fairly simple system for synthesizing special cases of spatial coherence is proposed. The special cases, called hybrid, include the case of total coherence in the x direction and, simultaneously, total incoherence in the y direction. The optical setup is based on a quasi-monochromatic, spatially coherent light source, such as a laser, and a simple moving optical element.