Abstract
New transverse orthogonal axes associated with the beam shape are introduced on the basis of the irradiance-moment formalism that describes the overall spatial structure of partially coherent paraxial beams. We refer to them as the intrinsic axes of the beam. The angle between these axes and the laboratory reference coordinates can be determined from the measurements of the second-order spatial moments of the beam, even although the field amplitude is not analytically known. It has been found that the intrinsic axes remain invariant upon propagation through rotationally symmetric first-order optical systems. Two additional analytical quantities have also been introduced. One of them provides a measure of the beam symmetry, and the other one contains information about the beam rotation under propagation. When the field is referred to the intrinsic axes, these two quantities are shown to reach their extreme values. The results are illustrated by means of an example.
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Martínez-Herrero, R., Mejías, P.M., Larraona-Puy, M. et al. Intrinsic axes of partially coherent light beams and their invariance through rotationally symmetric ABCD optical systems. Appl. Phys. B 105, 399–403 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-011-4661-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-011-4661-6