title: Quasi-stationary plane-wave optical pulses and the van Cittert-Zernike theorem in time.
abstract: We study the properties of quasi-stationary, partially coherent, plane-wave optical pulses in the space-time and space-frequency domains. A generalized van Cittert-Zernike theorem in time is derived to describe the propagation of the coherence function of quasi-stationary pulses. The theory is applied to rectangular pulses chopped from a stationary light source, and the evolution characteristics of such pulse trains with different states of coherence are discussed and illustrated with numerical examples.
authors.affiliation: Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), School of Information and Communication Technology, Kista, Sweden. hanna.lajunen@joensuu.fi
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lajunen
authors.forename: Ari T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Friberg
authors.forename: Petter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ostlund