Preface page xi
1. Elementary coherence phenomena
1.1 Interference and statistical similarity
1.2 Temporal coherence and the coherence time
1.3 Spatial coherence and the coherence area
1.4 The coherence volume
Problems
2. Mathematical preliminaries
2.1 Elementary concepts of the theory of random processes
2.2 Ergodicity
2.3 Complex representation of a real signal and the envelope of a narrow-band signal
2.4 The autocorrelation and the cross-correlation functions
2.4.1 The autocorrelation function of a finite sum of periodic components with random amplitudes
2.5 The spectral density and the Wiener-Khintchine theorem
Problems
3. Second-order coherence phenomena in the space-time domain
3.1 Interference law for stationary optical fields. The mutual coherence function and the complex degree of coherence
3.2 Generation of spatial coherence from an incoherent source. The van Cittert-Zernike theorem
3.3 Illustrative examples
3.3.1 Michelson’’s method for measuring stellar diameters
3.3.2 Michelson’’s method for determining energy distribution in spectral lines
3.4 Propagation of the mutual intensity
3.5 Wave equations for the propagation of mutual coherence in free space
Problems
4. Second-order coherence phenomena in the space-frequency domain
4.1 Coherent-mode representation and the cross-spectral density as a correlation function
4.2 The spectral interference law and the spectral degree of coherence
4.3 An illustrative example: spectral changes on interference
4.4 Interference of narrow-band light
Problems
5. Radiation from sources of different states of coherence
5.1 Fields generated by sources with different coherence properties
5.2 Correlations and the spectral density in the far field
5.3 Radiation from some model sources
5.3.1 Schell-model sources
5.3.2 Quasi-homogeneous sources
5.4 Sources of different states of spatial coherence which generate identical distributions of the radiant intensity
5.5 Coherence properties of Lambertian sources
5.6 Spectral changes on propagation. The scaling law
Problems
6. Coherence effects in scattering
6.1 Scattering of a monochromatic plane wave on a deterministic medium
6.2 Scattering of partially coherent waves on a deterministic medium
6.3 Scattering on random media
6.3.1 General formulas
6.3.2 Examples
6.3.3 Scattering on a quasi-homogeneous medium
Problems
7. Higher-order coherence effects
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Intensity interferometry with radio waves
7.3 The Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect and intensity interferometry with light
7.4 Einstein’’s formula for energy fluctuations in blackbody radiation and the wave-particle duality
7.5 Mandel’’s theory of photoelectric detection of light fluctuations
7.5.1 Mandel’’s formula for photocount statistics
7.5.2 The variance of counts from a single photodetector
7.5.3 Correlation between count fluctuations from two detectors
7.6 Determination of statistical properties of light from photocount measurements
Problems
8. Elementary theory of polarization of stochastic electromagnetic beams
8.1 The 2 _ 2 equal-time correlation matrix of a quasi-monochromatic electromagnetic beam
8.2 Polarized, unpolarized and partially polarized light. The degree of polarization
8.2.1 Completely polarized light
8.2.2 Natural (unpolarized) light
8.2.3 Partially polarized light and the degree of polarization
8.2.4 The geometrical significance of complete polarization. The Stokes parameters of completely polarized light. The Poincaré sphere
Problems
9. Unified theory of polarization and coherence
9.1 The 2 × 2 cross-spectral density matrix of a stochastic electromagnetic beam
9.2 The spectral interference law, the spectral degree of coherence and the spectral degree of polarization of stochastic electromagnetic beams
9.3 Determination of the cross-spectral density matrix from experiments
9.4 Changes in random electromagnetic beams on propagation
9.4.1 Propagation of the cross-spectral density matrix of a stochastic electromagnetic beam - general formulas
9.4.2 Propagation of the cross-spectral density matrix of an electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beam
9.4.3 Examples of correlation-induced changes in stochastic electromagnetic beams on propagation
9.4.4 Coherence-induced changes of the degree of polarization in Young’’s interference experiment
9.5 Generalized Stokes parameters
Problems
Appendices
Ⅰ Cells of phase space and the degeneracy parameter
(a) Cells of phase space of a quasi-monochromatic light wave (Section 1.4)
(b) Cells of phase space of radiation in a cavity (Sections 7.4 and 7.5)
(c) The degeneracy parameter
Ⅱ Derivation of Mandel’’s formula for photocount statistics [Eq. (2) of Section 7.5.1]
Ⅲ The degree of polarization of an electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model source
Ⅳ Some important probability distributions
(a) The binomial (or Bernoulli) distribution and some of its limiting cases
(b) The Bose-Einstein distribution
Author index
Subject index
