Abstract

A theoretical treatment is given for the diffraction of a Gaussian beam around an opaque strip mask. Such situations arise frequently in the diffraction of laser beams around wires and fibers. Scalar derivations are given for the Fraunhofer and Fresnel regions with both developments, leading to similar forms of rapidly convergent series for the field at an observation plane. Predictions show good agreement with measurements on the diffraction patterns from wires.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

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