Spectral anomalies and spectral switches of partially coherent and polychromatic light diffracted at an aperture

Based on the propagation theory of partially coherent light in the space-frequency domain, the anomalous spectral behavior and spectral switches in the far field of partially coherent and polychromatic light diffracted at an aperture are studied. It is shown that, as compared with spatially fully coherent and polychromatic light whose spectral anomalies are induced only by aperture diffraction, the spectral anomalies and spectral switches of partially coherent and polychromatic light depend on the aperture diffraction, spatial correlation β and bandwidth of the original spectrum. Detailed numerical calculations are made to illustrate the behavior of spectral switches of partially coherent and polychromatic light, and the results for spatially fully coherent and polychromatic light are treated as a special case of β =1 and included in our theory.