Coherent Optics -- A Tutorial Review

Brian J. Thompson

doi:10.1117/12.953474

1 June 1971 Coherent Optics -- A Tutorial Review

Brian J. Thompson

Proceedings Volume 0024, Underwater Photo-Optical Instrumentation Applications III; (1971) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.953474
Event: Underwater Photo-Optical Instrumentation Applications, 1971, Honolulu, United States

Abstract

There may be some doubt as to what the title Coherent Optics refers to. To me it means that part of optics that depends upon the coherence of the light for its description. Classically, of course, long before the word partially coherent light came into use, coherent systems were known and formed the basis for that portion of the study of light called Physical Optics. Hence interfer-ence and diffraction phenomena are well recognized; interferometry has developed into a discipline all its own with a wide ariety of types of interferometers that confound the neophyte. Many of the various interferometers are named which provides a listing that looks like a scientific "who's - who" --Michelson, Mach-Zehnder, Twyman-Green, Fizeau, Fabry-Perot, Rayleigh, Lummer-Gehrcke, Jamin, Sirks-Pringsheim ........, interferometers. Again we must pity (with a certain amount of smug superiority) the uninitiated who doesn't realize the difference between Fabry-Perot fringes and Fizeau fringes. The literature contains many works on interferometry, the intent reader may well refer to Steel (1967), Tolansky (1955), Candler (1951).

Citation Download Citation

Brian J. Thompson "Coherent Optics -- A Tutorial Review", Proc. SPIE 0024, Underwater Photo-Optical Instrumentation Applications III, (1 June 1971); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.953474

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