Fourier-transform spectral imaging: retrieval of source information from three-dimensional spatial coherence

By means of the present method, which was developed in order to obtain comprehensive information on a polychromatic radiator, both the spatial and spectral details of the radiative object can be simultaneously recovered under certain conditions from the three-dimensional spatial coherence function in the diffraction region. Object information recovery is based on a Fourier transform relationship derived from the basic Wolf and Carter (1978) formula describing the field correlation function in terms of the source correlation function. A novel interferometer design is proposed for efficient spatial coherence data collection.