LINEAR AXICONS IN PARTIALLY COHERENT-LIGHT

With uniform partially coherent illumination of a sufficiently small c oherence width, linear holographic axicons produce an extended axial l ine image of a desired length and a nearly uniform intensity. This res ult is demonstrated by numerical diffractive simulations based on gene ralized axicon phase functions and the space-frequency theory of optic al coherence. The conclusions are also verified through analytical cal culations employing the asymptotic method of stationary phase.