Journal of the Optical Society of America A
Nonstationary elementary-field light randomly triggered by Poisson impulses
Carlos R. Fernández‐Pousa
Abstract
A stochastic theory of nonstationary light describing the random emission of elementary pulses is presented. The emission is governed by a nonhomogeneous Poisson point process determined by a time-varying emission rate. The model describes, in the appropriate limits, stationary, cyclostationary, locally stationary, and pulsed radiation, and reduces to a Gaussian theory in the limit of dense emission rate. The first- and second-order coherence theories are solved after the computation of second- and fourth-order correlation functions by use of the characteristic function. The ergodicity of second-order correlations under various types of detectors is explored and a number of observables, including optical spectrum, amplitude, and intensity correlations, are analyzed.