A geometric description of the spatial coherence and Babinet'sp like principle for the fringe visibility

摘要

The concept of spatial coherence is usually hard to comprehend the first time that it is studied. We propose here a fully intuitive geometric description that does not contain mathematical difficulties, and permits one to understand how a Young's fringe stationary system is obtained with a source not spatially coherent. It is based in a very simple experiment that permits the detection of spatial coherence in a scene. Experimental results are shown. Using this approach, a Babinet- like principle for the visibility of the Young's fringes is proposed and experimentally demonstrated.