Re: A list of textbook miscon: spatial coherence

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Sat, 14 Feb 1998, John Gastineau wrote:

> I don't know. In the particular applications had, the spectral purity
> was much less important than raw power. I never did any measurements.
>
> Sorry to be slow to respond in this one--phys-l is busy these days, and
> I don't read everything right away.

Hi John!  Thanks for responding, I know that if everyone responded to
every question I raise, they would have to stay up until 4am as I've
started doing recently.  This "misconceptions list" discussion has
rekindeled my email addiction!  ;) 

My question was motivated by my contention that spatial coherence is not
explained by stimulated emission.  If I'm right, then an optical amplifier
will simply amplify, and won't increase the spatial coherence of the
oscillator's output.  If I'm wrong and the textbooks are right, then we
could eliminate the laser oscillator: a real-world optical amplifier could
be fed a pulse from a flashlight, and "coherent light" would exit from the
other end.

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