Abstract
We investigate a fundamental limitation on the measurement of spatial coherence for highly incoherent fields. We model the near-field detection scheme, required for such a measurement, with pointlike induced dipoles. We find that this fully vector model sets a characteristic length scale beyond which the spatial coherence of an optical field cannot be accurately measured. This length scale forms an uncertainty relationship with the photodetector integration time.
© 2003 Optical Society of America
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