Introduction to Optics
Including the tools and methods currently used by researchers and engineers, this book covers the essential concepts of comprehension and reports the great progress of the current knowledge in optics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction to Optics
Chapter 7: Diffraction
7.1 The Huygens-Fresnel Postulate
Diffraction has played an important role in the development of Optics and, more generally, of Physics. It should be remembered that the wave nature of light had been recognized only after Arago and Fresnel had made their experiments on diffraction by circular holes and disks.
The propagation of light had been experimentally analyzed well before any theoretical formulation (Maxwell's equations) or before the introduction of the necessary mathematical tools (vector analysis, Fourier development, ). The physicists working during the eighteenth century proved to be very imaginative and pragmatic when they described the phenomena that they were observing.
7.1.1 Intuitive Approach of the Huygens-Fresnel Principle
The Huygens-Fresnel principle is a typical example; the description of the propagation of light waves using wavelets is completely intuitive and is in full agreement with experimental results. Its validity is extended to many other domains and is not restricted to electromagnetic waves.
Diffraction is characteristic of any physical phenomenon leading to the propagation of waves, such as electromagnetic waves, acoustic waves, mechanical surface waves, De Broglie waves . Diffraction occurs any time that some obstacle is interposed on the wave trajectory; its effects are especially noticeable when the cross section of a beam is limited by a diaphragm having dimensions that cannot be considered as infinite, that's to say large, as compared to the wavelength.
Chapter 7 has been reviewed by Dr. Ludovic Brass from Teemphotonics.
To introduce the Huygens-Fresnel principle, we will start from the observation of...
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