Coherent-mode representation of partially coherent imagery

A new method for calculating image intensity distribution in partially coherent illumination is described. The method is based on the coherent-mode representation of the cross-spectral density function of illumination field and allows considerable reduction of the computational effort needed for image intensity calculation in comparison with the direct method. The computational efficiency of the method is larger the more coherent is the illumination in a global sense. An example of calculating image intensity for Schell-model illumination is compared with theoretical results.