Optical eigenmode description of partially coherent light fields

摘要

Optical eigenmodes describe coherent solutions of Maxwells equations that are orthogonal to each other. Thesemodes form a natural basis set of the electromagnetic Hilbert space that can be used to describe optical scatteringinteractions in a simple way. Many of the properties defined in quantum mechanics can formally be found in theoptical eigenmodes framework. For example, the Hilbert spaces defined by two different scattering operators areseparable only if the two operators commute with each other. Here, we expand the optical eigenmode frameworkto partially coherent light fields. In this case, we remark that the eigenmode decomposition of partially coherentfields leads to a formalism similar to the density matrix formalism used in quantum mechanics.