Retrieval of Structural Information from the Far-zone Intensity and Coherence of Scattered Radiation

Abstract

Abstract We study the radiant intensity and angular coherence of a novel type of partially coherent effective source arising from stochastic (e.g. K -correlated) radiation illuminating a deterministic (e.g. lens-like or periodic) phase object. We show that parabolic phase profiles lead to unusual far-zone intensity and coherence properties not described by the generalized van Cittert-Zernike theorem. For periodic phase objects we find multi-lobe angular intensity distributions and multi-peak degrees of angular coherence. We discuss the pertinent inverse source problems of retrieving information on the coherence of the illumination when the phase object is known, or vice versa, from the radiant intensity and/or the modulus of the angular coherence.