Influence of transverse effects on coherence length measurements using two-beam interferences

It has been demonstrated in a previous work (Opt. Commun. 233 (2004) 39–43), for a monochromatic laser beam, that imperfect collimation leads to systematic errors in the determination of the spectral bandwidth of a Gaussian beam. In this work, we demonstrate that such transverse effects could also make wrong the measurement of the coherence length of a non-monochromatic Gaussian beam. In addition, we have demonstrated that this systematic error is increased when the laser beam under study is made up of a mixing of spatial modes.