Physical Review Letters · 1998 · 770 citations · 13 references
Natural SciencesPhysicsDiagnostic ImagingOpticsPropagationImagingInterferometryOptical ImagingPhysical OpticsWave OpticsInterferometric ImagingPhase ImagingPoynting VectorPoynting Vector AnalysisPropagation Techniques
The authors investigate propagation through the Poynting vector, revealing two phase classes, one of which is topological. The authors demonstrate that noninterferometric propagation-based techniques can replace interferometric imaging in many experiments, that only the topological phase class may sometimes require interferometry, and that their alternative phase definitions for partially coherent light allow absolute phase and amplitude determination.
We demonstrate that interferometric imaging may be replaced by noninterferometric propagation-based techniques in many experiments. We explore propagation through the Poynting vector and find two classes of phase, one of which is topological in origin. Only this latter class may require interferometry to be determined, and even then only in specific well-defined circumstances. Our alternative definitions of phase are readily generalized to partially coherent radiation. Our analysis leads to an approach that is able to determine the absolute phase and the amplitude of a wave.
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Methods of Theoretical Physics
Philip Μ. Morse, Herman Feshbach, E. L. Hill · American Journal of Physics · 1954 · 13.3K citations