Two-time coherence of pulse trains and the integrated degree of temporal coherence
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Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1631-1637 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics Image Science and Vision |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
| Publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Abstract
We examine the temporal coherence properties of trains of nonidentical short optical pulses in the framework of the second-order coherence theory of nonstationary light. Considering Michelson's interferometric measurement of temporal coherence, we demonstrate that time-resolved interferograms reveal the full two-time temporal coherence function of the partially coherent pulse train. We also show that the result given by the time-integrated Michelson interferogram equals the true degree of temporal coherence only when the pulse train is quasistationary, i.e., the coherence time is a small fraction of the pulse duration. True two-time and integrated coherence functions produced by specific models representing perturbed trains of mode-locked pulses and supercontinuum pulse trains produced in nonlinear fibers are illustrated.