Two-dimensional mapping of the asymmetric lateral coherence of thermal light

We report in this work the first experimental verification of the asymmetric lateral coherence which is a measurement of the spatio-temporal coherence by using a wide-band Young interference experiment with a fixed off-axis slit. We demonstrate the coherence properties through the measurement of the real part of the coherence factor of thermal light. We extend our recent results obtained for betatron and undulator radiations providing a robust experimental method for the two-dimensional mapping of the two-point correlation function of broadband radiation preserving the phase information. The proposed method can be used as a high-sensitivity alternative to traditional interferometry with quasi-monochromatic radiation.