User:Antoine Moreau/Proposed/Fourier optics
Prof. Nicholas George accepted the invitation on 31 May 2010
Fourier optics refers to ...Fourier Optics Fourier Optics is the field of physics that encompasses the study of light at visible wavelengths but including infrared and ultraviolet portions of the electromagnetic spectrum as well. Based upon Maxwell’s equations for the electromagnetic field and using modern transform mathematics, principally Fourier transform theory in the solutions, Fourier Optics is particularly well-suited to the study of cascades of lenses and phase masks as are widely used in optical instruments ranging from microscopes to telescopes, i.e., linear optical systems. Fourier Optics also incorporates the advances in communication theory in the treatment of coherency topics to permit a rich, full analysis of optical systems that use various sources of illumination ranging from incoherent or white light to modulated laser beams. For Physical Optics, systems study of the point-spread-function and the optical transfer function can be described in a rigorous fashion. General transmission functions for lenses can be formulated and optical-system design that is valid in the non-paraxial regime is now practical. Fourier Optics places the analyses of linear optical systems on a rigorous theoretical foundation enabling one to calculate resolution, imaging and other interference phenomena in a careful and accurate fashion.--Nicholas George, Optics, Rochester 2010
