Spatial Interference: From Coherent to Incoherent

Su-Heng Zhang, Lu Gao, Jun Xiong, Li-Juan Feng, De-Zhong Cao, and Kaige Wang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 073904 – Published 20 February 2009

Abstract

We report an optical interference experiment which seems to contradict our common knowledge, in that the formation of the interference pattern originates from a spatially incoherent light source. Our experimental scheme is very similar to Gabor’s original proposal of holography [Nature (London) 161, 777 (1948)], except that an incoherent source replaces the coherent one. Though an instantaneous interference pattern between an object wave and reference wave fluctuates irregularly, a well-defined pattern appears in the statistical average, in accord with a hologram in the coherent light case.

Received 24 July 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.073904

Authors & Affiliations

Su-Heng Zhang¹, Lu Gao¹, Jun Xiong¹, Li-Juan Feng¹, De-Zhong Cao², and Kaige Wang^1,*

¹Department of Physics, Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
²Department of Physics, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China

^*Corresponding author. wangkg@bnu.edu.cn

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Vol. 102, Iss. 7 — 20 February 2009

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