376 10. IMAGING USING WAVE THEORY
FIGURE 10.1 (a) The geometrical optical imaging process; (b) imaging process using wave theory.
The Huygens’ wavelets of the object generate the diffraction pattern, and the Huygens’ wavelets
of the diffraction pattern generate the image.
10.2 SPATIAL WAVES AND BLACKENING CURVES,
SPATIAL FREQUENCIES, AND FOURIER
TRANSFORMATION
Using scalar diffraction theory, the Kirchhoff–Fresnel integral uses monochro-
matic light to describe the diffraction pattern of the light emerging from the
object. A lens is used in Fraunhofer diffraction to have the diffraction pattern
observed in the focal plane of the lens. This same integral may be written as a
Fourier transform integral, as done in Chapter 3 for the diffraction on a slit. The
coordinates of the object, the slit, are length coordinates in the length domain.
The coordinates of the Fourier transformation, the diffraction pattern of the slit,
are coordinates in the spatial frequency domain and have 1/length dimensions.
We note that we deal with an amplitude diffraction pattern in the frequency do-
main, which contains phase information, even if we started with a real function
in the object plane. After one applies a second Fourier transformation on the
diffraction pattern (in the spatial frequency domain), the result is a geometrical
image pattern similar to the original object and appearing in the space domain.
In our model description we use the first Fourier transformation from the geo-
metrical space domain into the spatial frequency domain. The object is described
by geometrical spatial waves and the Fourier transformation describes the fre-