title: Spatial interference: from coherent to incoherent.
abstract: We report an optical interference experiment which seems to contradict our common knowledge, in that the formation of the interference pattern originates from a spatially incoherent light source. Our experimental scheme is very similar to Gabor's original proposal of holography [Nature (London) 161, 777 (1948)], except that an incoherent source replaces the coherent one. Though an instantaneous interference pattern between an object wave and reference wave fluctuates irregularly, a well-defined pattern appears in the statistical average, in accord with a hologram in the coherent light case.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Su-Heng
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Li-Juan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: De-Zhong
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Kaige
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang