Display of spatial coherence

The mutual-intensity function plays a major role in characterizing quasi-monochromatic, partially coherent optical signals. We demonstrate an optical system for displaying the mutual intensity of a one dimensional input beam. The experimental system is based on the fact that the mutual intensity of a signal can be expressed as the ensemble averaging of a cross-correlation operation between two related optical signals. The setup consists of a Sagnac interferometer followed by an optoelectronic joint transform correlator. Experimental results demonstrate the capabilities of the mutual-intensity analyzer. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.