New indices of coherence for one or two-dimensional fields

Abstract

The modern definition of optical coherence highlights a frequency dependent function based on a matrix of spectra and cross-spectra. Due to general properties of matrices, such a function is invariant in changes of basis. In this article, we attempt to measure the proximity of two stationary fields by a real and positive number between 0 and 1. The extremal values will correspond to uncorrelation and linear dependence, similar to a correlation coefficient which measures linear links between random variables. We show that these "indices of coherence" are generally not symmetric, and not unique. We study and we illustrate this problem together for one-dimensional and two-dimensional fields in the framework of stationary processes.