Mutual Spatiotemporal Coherence of Optical Fields in an Amplitude-Splitting Interferometer

Abstract—We have considered cross correlations of wave perturbations formed by optical fields at different points of space at the exit of an interferometer with the splitting of the amplitude of the initial wave field. Expressions for the longitudinal spatiotemporal cross-correlation function of perturbations on the optical axis of a Michelson interferometer have been obtained and analyzed. We have determined spatial and temporal intervals in which the wave fields excite mutually coherent perturbations in the exit channel of the interferometer in the free space and in the image space of the lens system. We have found that, in the free space, mutually correlated perturbations arise simultaneously in identical longitudinal intervals, whereas, in the image space, they arise at different times in spatial and temporal intervals varying along the optical axis of the lens. The influence of cross correlations of the wave fields on the interferometer signal has been analyzed.