Accession Number:

AD0752902

Title:

Intensity Interferometry in the Spatial Domain

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

ARMY BALLISTIC RESEARCH LAB ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND MD

Personal Author(s):

• Deitz, Paul H.
• Carlson, F. P.

Report Date:

1972-10-01

Pagination or Media Count:

31.0

Abstract:

Intensity interferometry, as developed by Hanbury Brown and Twiss for stellar observation, has shown relative insensitivity to atmospheric scintillation. However, with classical sources, the limitations placed on this technique by quantum noise and detector efficiency are somewhat severe. This situation is vastly improved when laser illumination is employed. Generalizing a methodology of Marchand and Wolf, the far-zone behavior of the mutual intensity function is derived for an intermediate time average. This result is used to reconstruct the irradiance distribution of a spatially-incoherent source. The far-field intensity distribution is recorded spatially for one time-resolution unit of the detector. The resulting spatial signal is cross correlated with itself and related to the intensity distribution over the source. Thus without averaging in the time domain, a spatial Fourier transform relation is derived between the far-field intensity correlation and the source irradiance, similar to the results of Hanbury Brown and Twiss.

Descriptors:

• *LIGHT TRANSMISSION
• SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO
• INTENSITY
• SCINTILLATION
• STATISTICAL FUNCTIONS
• INTEGRAL TRANSFORMS
• COHERENT RADIATION

Subject Categories:

• Atmospheric Physics
• Optics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE