title: Wigner functions for evanescent waves.
abstract: We propose phase space distributions, based on an extension of the Wigner distribution function, to describe fields of any state of coherence that contain evanescent components emitted into a half-space. The evanescent components of the field are described in an optical phase space of spatial position and complex-valued angle. Behavior of these distributions upon propagation is also considered, where the rapid decay of the evanescent components is associated with the exponential decay of the associated phase space distributions. To demonstrate the structure and behavior of these distributions, we consider the fields generated from total internal reflection of a Gaussian Schell-model beam at a planar interface.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. jpetrucc@mit.edu
authors.forename: Jonathan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Petruccelli
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Se Baek
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barbastathis