Electromagnetic nonuniformly correlated beams

A class of electromagnetic sources with nonuniformly distributed field correlations is introduced. The conditions on source parameters guaranteeing that the source generates a physical beam are derived. It is shown that the new sources are capable of producing beams with polarization properties that evolve on propagation in a manner much more complex compared to the well-known electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beams. (c) 2012 Optical Society of America