An intuitive introduction to the concept of spatial coherence

TL;DR

This paper provides an intuitive geometric explanation of spatial coherence, making the concept accessible without complex mathematics, and demonstrates a simple experiment to detect spatial coherence in a scene.

Contribution

It introduces a straightforward, geometric approach to understanding spatial coherence and presents an easy experimental method for its detection.

Findings

Demonstrates how Young fringes can form with incoherent sources

Provides experimental validation of the geometric model

Simplifies understanding of spatial coherence concepts

Abstract

The concept of spatial coherence is usually hard to be understood the first time that it is studied. We propose here a fully intuitive geometric description that does not contain mathematical difficulties and permits to understand how a Young Fringes system is obtained with a source not spatially coherent. It is based in a very simple experiment that permits the detection of spatial coherence in a scene. Experimental results are shown.