Abstract

Second-order spatial coherence properties of radiation fields are usually determined from measurements of the visibility of fringes in suitable interference experiments.¹ In recent years it was demonstrated that spatial coherence properties of sources affect the spectrum of emitted radiation.² In this paper, we show that such spectral modifications may be utilized to provide a new method for determining spatial coherence properties of fields. We also establish a theorem that applies to sources of a large class, according to which a tradeoff between spatial separation and spectral information is possible in some two-point correlation experiments.

© 1991 Optical Society of America