title: Partially correlated azimuthal vortex illumination: coherence and correlation measurements and effects in imaging.
abstract: Correlations in the illumination field have a profound impact on the image contrast for features near the resolution limit. The pupil polarization affects these correlations. We show that a polarization vortex has a particularly dramatic effect. A theoretical model is given for the correlation matrix of a partially correlated source created by placing an azimuthal polarization vortex mode converter in the pupil plane of a critical illumination system. We then validate this model experimentally using a reversed-wavefront Young interferometer, directly show the impact that the phase of the correlation function has on image contrast.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. debrown@optics.rochester.edu
authors.forename: Dean P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008027:Light; D008029:Lighting / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*