Using a novel heterodyne technique, we measure optical phase-space distribu
tions in momentum and position for low-coherence light. Quantitative inform
ation is obtained simultaneously about the longitudinal and the transverse
coherence properties as well as the wave-front curvature of the light field
. This method can be used to monitor these optical parameters directly for
signal fields scattered from samples of interest, for tomographic imaging.
(C) 1999 Optical Society of America.