Abstract

A method to find the spatial distribution of magnitude and phase of a time-harmonic optical-wave field is presented. This method evaluates a series of three fringe patterns that arise from the interference between the wave field to be determined and three variations of a reference-wave field. The wave field to be determined may have any spatial distribution. A spatial distribution of the reference-wave field can be chosen such that the fringes obtained under far-field conditions vary slowly with the recording coordinates; both the magnitude and the phase of the unknown wave field are obtained over a surface given by a wave front of the reference wave. Magnitude and phase of the plane-wave spectrum of some diffracted-wave field can be obtained with this method.

© 1973 Optical Society of America

Optical-wave near field specified from far-field data

H. G. Schmidt-Weinmar
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(9) 1059-1066 (1975)

Optical-wave field determined over a hemispherical boundary surface

H. G. Schmidt-Weinmar
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(9) 999-1002 (1975)

Resolution distribution and information capacity of a hologram*

Stephen S. Hsiao
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(9) 1108-1119 (1973)

Source reconstruction from the modulus of the correlation function: a practical approach to the phase problem of optical coherence theory*

D. Kohler and L. Mandel
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(2) 126-134 (1973)

Smith–Purcell radiation from a point charge moving parallel to a reflection grating

P. M. van den Berg
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63(12) 1588-1597 (1973)