Spatial Coherence and Optical Beam Shifts

Abstract

A beam of light, reflected at a planar interface, does not follow perfectly the ray optics prediction. Diffractive corrections lead to beam shifts; either the reflected beam is displaced (spatial shift) and/or travels in a different direction (angular shift), as compared to geometric optics. How does the degree of spatial coherence of light influence these shifts? Theoretically, this has turned out to be a controversial issue. Here we resolve the controversy experimentally; we show that the degree of spatial coherence influences the angular beam shifts, while the spatial beam shifts are unaffected.

5 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov beam shifts: An overview
• Weak measurement of the Goos-Hanchen shift
• Goos-Hänchen Shifts of Partially Coherent Light Fields
• Quantum Goos-Hänchen shift and tunneling transmission at a curved step potential
• Second-order nonlocal shifts of scattered wave-packets: What can be measured by Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov effects ?