An experimental technique for measuring radial coherence

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient experimental method to measure radial coherence in optical fields, expanding the tools available for analyzing spatial coherence in cylindrical coordinates.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel experimental technique specifically designed for measuring radial coherence in optical fields, addressing a recent theoretical development.

Findings

Successfully measured radial coherence of two types of radially partially coherent fields

Demonstrated the effectiveness of the new measurement technique

Extended the experimental capabilities for spatial coherence analysis

Abstract

Coherence refers to correlations between field vibrations at two separate points in degrees of freedom such as space, time, and polarisation. In the context of space, coherence theory has been formulated between two transverse positions which can be described either in the cartesian coordinates or in the cylindrical coordinates. When expressed in cylindrical coordinates, spatial coherence is described in terms of azimuthal and radial coordinates. The description of spatial coherence in radial degree of freedom has been formulated only recently in JOSA A 40, 411 (2023). In the present article, we demonstrate an efficient experimental technique for measuring radial coherence, and we report measurement of radial coherence of two different types of radially partially coherent optical fields.