Shifted-elementary-mode representation for partially coherent vectorial fields

A representation of partially spatially coherent and partially polarized stationary electromagnetic fields is given in terms of mutually uncorrelated, transversely shifted, fully coherent and polarized elementary electric-field modes.This representation allows one to propagate non-paraxial partially coherent vector fields using comparatively simple (numerical) techniques available for spatially coherent fields. A procedure is given to determine the elementary modes from the radiant intensity and the far-zone polarization properties of the entire field. For illustration, the method is applied to quasihomogeneous fields with rotationally symmetric cos^nθ radiant intensity distributions (θ being the diffraction angle with respect to the optical axis and n an integer). This is an adequate model for fields emitted by, e.g., many light-emitting diodes. In the talk we give a brief description of the theory as well as numerical demonstrations.