Spatial Coherence Mapping of Structured Astrophysical Sources

• Main Author: Magalhães, Tiago Emanuel da Cunha
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45596
• topic: Coherence and statistical optics; coherence optical effects; numerical simulation and analysis; heterogeneous computing; optical design; astronomical instrumentation; digital micromirror devices; Coerência e óptica estatística; efeitos ópticos da coerência; simulação numérica e análise; computação heterogénea; desenho óptico; instrumentação astronómica; dispositivo digital de microespelhos; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Naturais::Ciências Físicas

All optical fields that we encounter in nature or in the laboratory have random fluctuations. Although light emerging from lasers can be considered as “well-behaved” electromagnetic fields, that is certainly not the case of natural sources such as stars. Thus, they must be treated statistically using the theory of coherence, in particular, second-order statistics. The Mutual Coherence Function (MCF) and the Cross-Spectral Density Function (CSDF) are central quantities in the space-time and space-frequency domains, respectively, in the theory of coherence. Both quantities are connected through a Fourier transform. Moreover, all second order-optical quantities can be extracted from these central functions, for example, the intensity distribution and the spectral degree of coherence. Since, in general, the MCF and the CSDF change throughout propagation, all second-order optical quantities, such as the spectral density, also change throughout propagation. When the far-field normalized spectrum of light changes due to source correlations, we say that coherenceinduced spectral changes occurred. This is known as the Wolf effect and it is the driving force of this dissertation. In this thesis, we have investigated the use of heterogeneous computing for the propagation of partially coherent light, namely, the propagation of the CSDF. The main goal was to reduce the computation time. By defining the CSDF at the source plane, the software built is able to propagate the CSDF and retrieve second-order optical quantities such as the spectral density and the spectral degree of coherence. The implementation of this software was then used to perform numerical simulations of the propagation of the far-field normalized spectrum of planar sources. The main goal was to evaluate the presence of the Wolf effect in specific source models. The results obtained suggest that the far-field spectrum of source models, which do not have analytical solutions, can be computed using our implementation. We next designed to first-order a conceptual space-based instrument, named Solar Coherence Instrument (SCI), capable of performing spatial coherence measurements of individual solar granular cells (granules), present in the photosphere of the Sun. Two digital micromirror devices, which are reflective-type spatial light modulator, form the basis of our design. A signal-to-noise ratio estimation (> 102) was performed and the results point to the feasibility of such instrument. We then validated experimentally two crucial subsystems of SCI, namely, the subsystems responsible for selective imaging of a single solar granule and another responsible for spatial coherence measurements. In both cases, two experiments were designed and constructed, and the results obtained are presented and discussed. By comparing the spatial coherence measurement results with those expected from the van Cittert-Zernike theorem, we have obtained a good agreement, suggesting that such configuration is possible.