Abstract

We present a study of the interference of light produced by a pair of mutually correlated Gaussian Schell-model sources. The spatial distributions of the fields produced by these sources are symmetric with respect to a plane through their common center and differ by a phase factor $\exp \left(i\varphi \right)$. When $\varphi =0$, the resulting radiation is a beam with an intensity distribution that displays a narrow bright line at its center. When the sources can be regarded as Collett–Wolf sources, the resulting bright line diverges much more slowly than the beam itself. When $\varphi =\pi$ the radiated beam has an intensity distribution with a narrow dark line at its center. The theoretical results are supported by experimental results obtained by use of a modified Michelson interferometer and suggest that the interference of a pair of correlated Collett–Wolf beams can be used to produce a pseudo-nondiffracting beam.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

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