Non-local orientation filtered imaging with incoherent light source.

A non-local spatial filtered imaging experiment using an orientation filter has been performed with spatially incoherent thermal light, which is based on Abbe-Porter imaging system. A two-dimensional periodic grid object and an orientation filter are placed in two correlated light beams, namely a test beam and a reference beam, generated by splitting the thermal light beam via a beam splitter. The filtering process has been produced by manipulating the orientation of a slit aperture, which is in the back focal plane of the biconvex imaging lens in the reference beam. The detected object is placed in the test beam, whose modulated images have been achieved through optical field intensity correlation measurement between the two correlated beams. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical analysis. The research results here show considerable possibilities to distributively manipulate the image of an object with spatially incoherent light source, which could find potential applications in the remote imaging technology in the fields of geological survey and spectral analysis.