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Synthesizing General Electromagnetic Partially Coherent Sources From Random, Correlated Complex Screens, Milo W. Hyde Iv

Faculty Publications

We present a method to generate any genuine electromagnetic partially coherent source (PCS) from correlated, stochastic complex screens. The method described here can be directly implemented on existing spatial-light-modulator-based vector beam generators and can be used in any application which utilizes electromagnetic PCSs. Our method is based on the genuine cross-spectral density matrix criterion. Applying that criterion, we show that stochastic vector field realizations (corresponding to a desired electromagnetic PCS) can be generated by passing correlated Gaussian random numbers through “filters” with space-variant transfer functions. We include step-by-step instructions on how to generate the electromagnetic PCS field realizations. As an …