Ghost interference with partially coherent radiation

Ghost interference with partially coherent radiation sources is studied using optical coherence theory. The visibility of the ghost interference fringes is strongly influenced by the transverse size and transverse coherence width of the source. An increase of the transverse source size leads to a decrease of the fringes' visibility. An increase of the transverse coherence results in an increase of the visibility. The difference between ghost interference formed with entangled photon pairs and with partially coherent light is discussed. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.