Abstract

The problem of making an envelope representation of the fluctuating classical wave amplitude of a stationary optical field is investigated. The condition that the envelope function fluctuates as slowly as possible, in a least-squares sense, is shown to lead naturally to the complex analytic signal representation first introduced by Gabor. Besides being in correspondence with the quantum-mechanical description of the optical field, this representation is the only one in accord with intuitive notions about the envelope of a random process.

© 1967 Optical Society of America

Detectability of Coherent Optical Signals in a Heterodyne Receiver

Carl W. Helstrom
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57(3) 353-361 (1967)

Propagation of the Coherence Function in Nonlinear Dielectrics*

Mark J. Beran and John B. DeVelis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57(2) 186-191 (1967)

Optical Systems, Singularity Functions, Complex Hankel Transforms

A. Papoulis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57(2) 207-213 (1967)

Thermal Deformations in a Satellite Telescope Mirror

Lyman Spitzer and Bruno A. Boley
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57(7) 901-913 (1967)

Decay of Mutual Coherence in Turbulent Media*

Leonard S. Taylor
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57(3) 304-308 (1967)