New principle for optical tomography and profilometry based on spatial coherence synthesis with a spatially modulated extended light source

摘要

Giving a new physical interpretation to the principle of longitudinal coherence control, we propose an improved method for synthesizing a desired spatial coherence function along the longitudinal axis of light propagation. By controlling the irradiance of an extended quasi-monochromatic spatially incoherent source with a spatial light modulator, we generated a special optical field that exhibits high coherence selectively for the particular pair of points at the specified locations along the axis of beam propagation. This function of longitudinal coherence control provides new possibilities in optical tomography and profilometry. Quantitative experimental proof of the principle is presented.