Possibilities of using inhomogeneity in light energy distribution for estimating the degree of coherence of superposing waves.

The paper presents a new method for determining the degree of coherence of superposing plane linearly polarized waves converging at the angle of 90°. The spatial modulation of polarization, which causes the spatial modulation of the averaged values of the Poynting vector, presets the modulation of the volume energy density. Such an inhomogeneous optical field can affect nano-sized particles randomly caught in this field. The paper shows that the maximum velocity of "trapping" the particles into the regions of maximum averaged values of the Poynting vector determines the degree of coherence of interacting waves.