COHERENCE

Refers to the connection between the phase of light

waves at one point and time and the phase of the
light waves at another point and time.
For obtaining a sustained interference pattern,
1. The phase difference between the interfering waves
should not vary with time .
2. The waves should be monochromatic.
3. Sources should have the same wavelength.

The sources that give this type of light are said to be
coherent - 2 Types
1. TEMPORAL (longitudinal)
2. SPATIAL (lateral or transverse)
The spatial coherence length is the transverse distance over which the beam
wave-fronts remain flat:
The temporal coherence time and
the spatial coherence length
The temporal coherence time is how long the beam remains sinusoidal at a
single wavelength:
Since there are two
transverse dimensions,
we can define a spatial
coherence area, A
c
.
Temporal
Coherence
Time, t
c

Spatial
Coherence
Length, x
c
t
c
Wave-fronts
x
c
k
k
Wave-fronts
Spatial and
Temporal
Coherence
Beams can be
coherent or
only partially
coherent (indeed,
even incoherent)
in both space and
time.
Spatial and
Temporal
Coherence:

Temporal
Coherence;
Spatial
Incoherence
Spatial
Coherence;
Temporal
Incoherence
Spatial and
Temporal
Incoherence
x
c
t
c
t
c
Wave-fronts
t
c
t
c
x
c
x
c
x
c
How quickly will a light wave deviate from a
perfect sine wave in time?
0 2 1 2 1 0
exp exp ( ) ( , ) Re{ } ( )
tot
E i k x E E i k x t x t t e e = +
So the phase will drift on a time
scale of: ~ 2t/Ae = 1/Av
Suppose the light wave has two frequencies:
t
E
The two frequencies will become
significantly out of phase with each
other in a time, t
c
:
2
2
1
1
2
2 / ( )
c c
c
t t t
t e t
e e
e
=
=
1 2
2 e t v e e A = = A
where:
The coherence time is the reciprocal of the
bandwidth.
The largest frequency difference in the light wave will yield the
shortest phase-drift time, which we call the coherence time:
1/
c
v t = A
where Dn is the light bandwidth (the width of the spectrum).
Sunlight and light bulbs are temporally very incoherentand have very
small coherences times (a few fs)because their bandwidths are very
large (the entire visible spectrum).
Lasers can have much longer coherence timesas long as about a
second, which is amazing; that's >10
14
cycles!
The spatial coherence depends on the emitter
size and its distance away.
The van Cittert-Zernike Theorem states that the spatial coherence area A
c

is given by:
2 2 2
2
c
D
d

A
t t
= =
O
Starlight is spatially very coherent because stars are very far away.
Basically, wave-fronts smooth
out as they propagate away
from the source.
where o is the diameter of the
light source and D is the
distance away, and O = d
2
/D
2
is
the solid angle subtended by the
source.
Irradiance of a sum of two waves
{ }
2
*
2
1
1
Re c E E
I I I
c
= + +

Different
colors
Different polarizations
Same
colors
Same polarizations
1 2
I I I = +
1 2
I I I = +
1 2
I I I = +
Interference only occurs when the waves have the same color and
polarization.
Coherent
addition
Incoherent
addition
The irradiance when combining a beam with a
delayed replica of itself has fringes.
Suppose the two beams are E
0
exp(iet) and E
0
exp[ie(tt)], that is, a beam
and itself delayed by some time t :
The irradiance is given by:
{ }
*
1 1 2 2
Re I I c E E I c = + +
{ }
*
0 0 0
2 Re exp[ ] exp[ ( )] I I c E i t E i t c e e t = +
{ }
2
0 0
2 Re exp( ) I c E i c et = +
2
0 0
2 cos( ) I c E c et = +
0 0
2 2 cos( ) I I I et = +
Fringes (in delay)
I
t
Bright fringe Dark fringe
Varying the delay on purpose
Simply moving a mirror can vary the delay of a beam by many
wavelengths.
Since light travels 300 m per ps, 300 m of mirror displacement yields a
delay of 2 ps. Such delays can come about naturally, too.
Moving a mirror backward by a distance L yields a delay of:

t = 2 L/c
Do not forget the factor of 2!
Light must travel the extra distance
to the mirrorand back!
Translation stage
Input
beam E(t)
E(tt)
Mirror
Output
beam
2 / 2 L c k L et e = =
Interference is easy when the light wave is a
monochromatic plane wave. What if its not?
For perfect sine waves, the two beams are either in phase or theyre not.
What about a beam with a short coherence time?
The beams could be in phase some of the time and out of phase at other
times, varying rapidly.
Remember that most optical measurements take a long time, so these
variations will get averaged.
t
c
Adding a
non-
monochro-
matic wave
to a delayed
replica of
itself
Delay =
period (<<
t
c
):
|Delay| > t
c
:
Constructive
interference for
all times.
Coherent.
Bright fringe
Destructive
interference for
all times.
Coherent.
Dark fringe
Incoherent
addition.
No fringes.
Delay = 0:
Temporal Coherence- The phase difference of
the waves crossing the two points lying along the
direction of propagation of beam is time independent.






Beam is travelling along the direction XX.
P and Q are the two points lying on the line XX
Beam possesses temporal coherence
if the phase difference of the waves crossing P and
Q at any instant of time is always constant.

e.g. the phase of the waves crossing P and Q at
any instant t
1
are
1
and
2

and at any time t
2
are
1
and
2

The beam is said to be coherent if

2
-
1
=
2
-
1


Spatial Coherence-
The phase difference of the waves
crossing the two points lying on a plane perpendicular to
the direction of propagation of the beams is time
independent.










For waves travelling along the direction XX, abcd is a
plane perpendicular to XX.
P and P are two points on this plane with in the beam
of light.

Beam possesses spatial coherence
if the phase difference of the waves crossing P
and P at any instant is always constant.
e.g. the phases of the two waves crossing P and P at any
instant t
1
are the same say
1
and when measured at any
other instant t
2
are also same say
2
.
In such a case the beam possesses spatial coherence.

Analysis of Temporal Coherence-
The actual sources of light are not perfectly
monochromatic (wave train of finite length).
Light- a sequence of harmonic wave trains of finite length
each separated from each other by a discontinuous change
in phase.
(i.e., random phase and random directions of emissions).


The discontinuities in phase of the two adjacent wave
trains reflect the randomness of the emission of light
waves by the different atoms (independently).

The light wave trains emitted from each source can be
characterized by an average life time T
0
also called
coherent time.

The band width of the
spectral distribution
is inversely proportional
to T
0
( ).



0
2
T
t
e= A
The average length of the wave train is called coherent
length(L
0
).
For velocity of light c , L
0
= c T
0
(1)
Since

Therefore,



where f denotes the frequency distribution in Hz.
Comparing (1) and (2)



Therefore,


0
2
T
t
e= A
) 2 (
1
2
2
0
0
T
f
T

] f [
=
=
( ) 4
) 3 (
0

c
f
f
c
L
=
A
=
) 5 (
2

A
= A
c
f
Putting (5) in (3)

A
=
2
0
L
or
0
2
L

= A
is called the natural line width.
Therefore, the light wave train supposed to be of wave
length , actually can have the effective wavelength
varying between
2 2

A
+
A
and
When these wave trains superimpose to produce an
interference pattern,
there will be a certain point of
uncertainty in the existence of the maximum and
minimum at the observation point.
The uncertainty in the formation of a well defined
interference pattern depends on the natural line
width .
Smaller the value of , lesser is the extent of
uncertainty.
Since,
0
2
L

= A
Therefore, for obtaining a well defined or sustained
interference, the coherent length (L
0
) should be large.
Also, coherent time should be large.
c
L
T
0
0
=
Hence, the temporal coherence depends on the value of
the coherent length(L
0
) or coherent time(T
0
).
The coherent length is a measure of the temporal
coherence.
For sustained interference, the difference in the path of
the interfering beams should not be much
greater than the coherent length.

The path difference ~ coherent length.

The line width is caused by the uncertainty in the
frequency of the wave train emitted when the orbital
electron jumps from higher orbit to the lower orbit.

The uncertainty in the frequency arises because of the
Doppler effect, when the electron, the source of light
moves from higher orbit to lower orbit.

Therefore, line width is also called the Doppler width.