Propagation of Bessel-correlated specular and antispecular beams

Abstract

We address the specular properties of Bessel-correlated fields, generated by illuminating a tilted rotating plane-parallel glass plate with a coherent Gaussian beam and passing the output beam though a mirror-based wavefront folding interferometer. This device allows us to produce beams whose specular properties are preserved in propagation. In the far zone, the specular nature of these partially coherent fields is shown to produce intensity-profile oscillations in the sub-diffraction-limit scale. The analytical results at various propagation distances are verified experimentally by using another wavefront-folding interferometer for coherence measurements.