Spatial coherence of thermal near fields

Abstract

We analyze the spatial coherence of the electromagnetic field emitted by a half-space at temperature T close to the interface. An asymptotic analysis allows to identify three different contributions to the cross-spectral density tensor in the near-field regime. It is shown that the coherence length can be either much larger or much shorter than the wavelength depending on the dominant contribution.

13 pages, 8 graphs, includes Elsevier elsart.cls preprint style. Submitted to Optics Communications (27 july 2000)