A Novel Speckle Analysis Scheme for Coherence Measurement Using a Standard Phase Modulator

This letter describes a novel configuration and theory for the degree of coherence measurement based on the statistical speckle analysis in coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry. The difference from the previous letter is using a standard phase modulator instead of a single-sideband modulator, which not only simplifies the system configuration, but also yields modulation efficiency, resulting in the operation with lower light source power. A novel theory is presented to describe the operation of the proposed configuration, and experimental results show the validity of the new configuration and theory.