title: Theory of spatially and spectrally partially coherent pulses.
abstract: A coherent-mode representation for spatially and spectrally partially coherent pulses is derived both in the space-frequency domain and in the space-time domain. It is shown that both the cross-spectral density and the mutual coherence function of partially coherent pulses can be expressed as a sum of spatially and spectrally and temporally completely coherent modes. The concept of the effective degree of coherence for nonstationary fields is introduced. As an application of the theory, the propagation of Gaussian Schell-model pulsed beams in the space-frequency domain is considered and their coherent-mode representation is presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland. hanna.lajunen@joensuu.fi
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lajunen
authors.forename: Pasi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vahimaa
authors.forename: Jani
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tervo