article published yes Charles Roques-Carmes author e2e68fc9-6505-11ef-a541-eb4e72cc3e82 Shanhui Fan author David A. B. Miller author Optical phenomena always display some degree of partial coherence between their respective degrees of freedom. Partial coherence is of particular interest in multimodal systems, where classical and quantum correlations between spatial, polarization, and spectral degrees of freedom can lead to fascinating phenomena (e.g., entanglement) and be leveraged for advanced imaging and sensing modalities (e.g., in hyperspectral, polarization, and ghost imaging). Here, we present a universal method to analyze, process, and generate spatially partially coherent light in multimode systems by using self-configuring optical networks. Our method relies on cascaded self-configuring layers whose average power outputs are sequentially optimized. Once optimized, the network separates the input light into its mutually incoherent components, which is formally equivalent to a diagonalization of the input density matrix. We illustrate our method with numerical simulations of Mach-Zehnder interferometer arrays and show how this method can be used to perform partially coherent environmental light sensing, generation of multimode partially coherent light with arbitrary coherency matrices, and unscrambling of quantum optical mixtures. We provide guidelines for the experimental realization of this method, including the influence of losses, paving the way for self-configuring photonic devices that can automatically learn optimal modal representations of partially coherent light fields. Springer Nature2024 eng 2047-7538 2402.00704 3930005810.1038/s41377-024-01622-y 13 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/21634 yes Roques-Carmes, Charles, et al. “Measuring, Processing, and Generating Partially Coherent Light with Self-Configuring Optics.” <i>Light: Science &#38; Applications</i>, vol. 13, 260, Springer Nature, 2024, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y">10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y</a>. Roques-Carmes, C., Fan, S., &#38; Miller, D. A. B. (2024). Measuring, processing, and generating partially coherent light with self-configuring optics. <i>Light: Science &#38; Applications</i>. Springer Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y</a> C. Roques-Carmes, S. Fan, and D. A. B. Miller, “Measuring, processing, and generating partially coherent light with self-configuring optics,” <i>Light: Science &#38; Applications</i>, vol. 13. Springer Nature, 2024. C. Roques-Carmes, S. Fan, D.A.B. Miller, Light: Science &#38; Applications 13 (2024). Roques-Carmes C, Fan S, Miller DAB. 2024. Measuring, processing, and generating partially coherent light with self-configuring optics. Light: Science &#38; Applications. 13, 260. Roques-Carmes, Charles, Shanhui Fan, and David A. B. Miller. “Measuring, Processing, and Generating Partially Coherent Light with Self-Configuring Optics.” <i>Light: Science &#38; Applications</i>. Springer Nature, 2024. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y</a>. Roques-Carmes C, Fan S, Miller DAB. Measuring, processing, and generating partially coherent light with self-configuring optics. <i>Light: Science &#38; Applications</i>. 2024;13. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y">10.1038/s41377-024-01622-y</a> 215352026-03-30T12:22:47Z2026-05-05T10:45:37Z