An optical system for the generation of partially coherent beams with genuine cross-spectral density functions from spatially modulated globally incoherent sources is presented. The spatial intensity modulation of the incoherent source is achieved by quasi-planar metasurfaces based on spatial-frequency modulation of binary Bragg surface-relief diffraction gratings. Two types of beams are demonstrated experimentally: (i) azimuthally periodic, radially quasi-periodic beams and (ii) rotationally symmetric Bessel-correlated beams with annular far-zone radiation patterns.

We address space–frequency domain coherence properties of broadband light-emitting diodes (white LEDs) and fields radiated by them. Inverse-source techniques are employed to determine the spectral degree of spatial coherence of an effective planar source representing a real LED, and coherent elementary fields associated with it. By fitting with experimental measurements, we formulate simple analytical coherence models that can be used as a basis for theoretical and experimental studies of the coherence of polychromatic stationary light in free space and in various optical systems. In particular, we find that radiation from white LEDs follows closely Wolf’s scaling law for spectral invariance [Phys. Rev. Lett.56, 1370 (1986)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.56.1370] in the blue and the phosphor-generated parts of the spectrum separately, but not across the entire white-light spectrum.

We have developed a numerical framework that allows estimation of coherence in spatiotemporal and spatiospectral domains. Correlation properties of supercontinuum (SC) pulses generated in a bulk medium are investigated by means of second-order coherence theory of non-stationary fields. The analysis is based on simulations of individual space–time and space–frequency realizations of pulses emerging from a 5 mm thick sapphire plate, in the regimes of normal, zero, and anomalous group velocity dispersion. The temporal and spectral coherence properties are analyzed in the near field (as a function of spatial position at the exit plane of the nonlinear medium) and as a function of propagation direction (spatial frequency) in the far field. Unlike in fiber-generated SC, the bulk case features spectacularly high degrees of temporal and spectral coherence in both the spatial and spatial-frequency domains, with increasing degrees of coherence at higher pump energies. When operating near the SC generation threshold, the overall degrees of temporal and spectral coherence exhibit an axial dip in the spatial domain, whereas in the far field, the degree of coherence is highest around the optical axis.

We introduce a spectrally resolved Young’s interferometer based on a digital micromirror device, a grating spectrometer, and a set of polarization-modulation elements to measure the spectral coherence (two-point) Stokes parameters of random light beams. An experimental demonstration is provided with a spatially partially coherent superluminescent diode amounting to a complex structure of spatio-spectral coherence induced by a quartz-wedge depolarizer. We also show that the polarization and spatial coherence of light can vary with wavelength on a subnanometer scale. The technique is simple and robust and applies to light beams with any spectral bandwidth.