Propagation of the electric correlation matrix and the van Cittert-Zernike theorem for random electromagnetic fields

摘要

The basic mathematical tool of the theory of random, statistically stationary electromagnetic optical Fields is a 3 x 3 correlation matrix of its electric field. In this paper we derive formulae for propagation of this matrix from a plane z = 0 into the half-space z > 0, and we find an analogue for electromagnetic fields to the propagation law derived by Zernike for scalar fields.