M² Factor of a Vector Schell-Model Beam

Authors

Milo W. Hyde IV, Air Force Institute of Technology
Mark F. Spencer

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

Extending existing scalar Schell-model source work, we derive the M² factor for a general electromagnetic or vector Schell-model source to assess beam quality. In particular, we compute the M² factors for two vector Schell-model sources found in the literature. We then describe how to synthesize vector Schell-model beams in terms of specified, desired M² and present Monte Carlo simulation results to validate our analysis.

Comments

This is an open access article published by SPIE and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC BY 4.0

Sourced from the published version of record cited below. DOI link

DOI

10.1117/1.OE.58.7.074101

Source Publication

Optical Engineering

Recommended Citation

M. W. Hyde and M. F. Spencer, “M2 factor of a vector Schell-model beam,” Opt. Eng. 58(07), 1 (2019) [doi:10.1117/1.OE.58.7.074101].