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Re: [Phys-L] two-slit interference for non-laser sources

Sorry for the slow response, as I appreciate your reply.

(And if you
really want to understand why a laser is different from filtered sunlight,
there is even more to the story.)


I’m interested to hear a bit more. In particular, what determines the temporal coherence of a filtered blackbody source? (I assume the bandwidth of the filter should play into the answer. But I assume that’s not the whole story. Intrinsically the high Q due to the long effective pathlength inside a HeNe laser cavity acting in concert with stimulated emission must dramatically increase the longitudinal coherence length L compared to a hot, randomly vibrating, spontaneously emitting atom for which I guess L to be on the order of a few times the pass wavelength of the filter. How can I improve my guess with some simple ideas?

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Carl E. Mungan, Professor of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
Naval Academy Stop 9c, 572C Holloway Rd, Annapolis MD 21402-1363
mailto:mungan@usna.edu http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/