The Fresnel Approximation and Diffraction of Focused Waves

Abstract

In this paper, diffraction of scalar waves by a screen with a circular aperture is explored, considering the incidence of either a collimated beam or a focused wave, a historical review of the development of the theory is presented, and the introduction of the Fresnel approximation is described. For diffraction by a focused wave, the general case is considered for both high numerical aperture and for finite values of the Fresnel number. One aim is to develop a theory based on the use of dimensionless optical coordinates that can help to determined the general behaviour and trends of different system parameters. An important phenomenon, the focal shift effect, is discussed as well. Explicit expressions are provided for focal shift and the peak intensity for different numerical apertures and Fresnel numbers. This is one application where the Rayleigh–Sommerfeld diffraction integrals provide inaccurate results.

Keywords

• diffraction theory
• focusing
• Fresnel approximation
• focal shift
• Fresnel number
• beam propagation