Abstract

One of the most basic principles of optical wave propagation, Huygens’ principle, was applied to optical imaging of extended objects. Capitalizing on this basic principle, Scalar Diffraction Theory can be applied without the need for any paraxial approximations to describe the propagation of optical fields through an imaging system. In that framework the optical system is considered linear and locally shift-invariant, Furthermore, the object is considered as sum of point sources and the image is obtained as superimposition of the contributions of each point source through the optical system. Most of the current commercially available optical system analysis software is based on approximated models, such as Gaussian beam decomposition, finite-element field propagation, etc. that does not allow for analysis of the most general cases.

© 2003 Optical Society of America