title: Generalized optical interferometry for modal analysis in arbitrary degrees of freedom.
abstract: We generalize the traditional concept of temporal optical interferometry to any degree of freedom of a coherent optical field. By identifying the structure of a unitary optical transformation that we designate the generalized phase operator, we enable optical interferometry to be carried out in any modal basis describing a degree of freedom. The structure of the generalized phase operator is that of a fractional optical transform, thus establishing the connection between fractional transforms, optical interferometry, and modal analysis.
authors: CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA. raddy@creol.ucf.edu
authors: Ayman F
authors: AF
authors: Abouraddy
authors: Timothy M
authors: TM
authors: Yarnall
authors: Bahaa E A
authors: BE
authors: Saleh