A formulation is developed for investigating the intensity distribution of Fresnel diffraction by a circular aperture illuminated with partially coherent light. The theory formulated is applied to obtain the intensity distribution along the normal axis to the aperture in the Fresnel diffraction field when the spatially mutual coherence function of the illumination over the aperture takes three different forms. It is shown that the Fresnel diffraction is largely influenced by the coherence condition across the diffracting aperture.

Fresnel Diffraction by a Circular Aperture Illuminated with Partially Coherent Light. I

Diffraction of partially coherent light by an apodized slit aperture

Effect of partially space coherent illumination on the performance of a defocused optical system with a slit aperture

The near- and far-field diffraction due to a circular aperture illuminated with partially coherent light produced by a turbulent medium has been theoretically studied. Formulations are developed for investigating the near- and far-field diffraction patterns. The phase structure function, which is generated by the turbulent medium and determines the partially coherent condition of a light beam passing through it, is assumed to take both the Gaussian form and the 5/3-power law. Numerical results concerning the far-field intensity distribution and the axial intensity distribution in the near-field region are presented in diagrams and discussed.

Effect of a turbulent medium on the near- and far-field diffraction of a circular aperture

Bibliographic Review on “Studies on Partial Coherence”

The statistical properties of the electromagnetic field diffracted by a plane aperture illuminated by a fluctuating field have been studied in the Fresnel zone on the basis of the theory of partial coherence. The average power distribution and the amplitude and phase of the degree of coherence have been computed for several coherence lengths of the illuminating field ranging from 1/4 to 5 times the dimension of the aperture and for two geometries of the observation points. The obtained results indicate the limits of validity of the often assumed hypothesis of spatial stationarity and of the real Gaussian approximation for the degree of coherence of the diffracted field. It turns out also that the optimum position of a receiving phase-sensitive system placed in the field diffracted by an aperture may not be the focus of the aperture, since there the concentration of average power density is accompanied by a poor coherence of the field.

D. Solimini

Papers

Statistical properties of the field diffracted by an aperture with partially coherent illumination