Title

Tolerance on defocus precisely locates the far field (exactly where is that far field anyway?)

Authors

Authors

J. E. Harvey; A. Krywonos;D. Bogunovic

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Appl. Optics

Keywords

DIFFRACTED WAVE-FIELDS; ABERRATIONS; Optics

Abstract

The Fraunhofer criterion defines the location of the boundary between the Fresnel and the Fraunhofer diffraction regions and thus determines the location of that region commonly referred to as the far field. The Fraunhofer criterion is usually given as an axial distance much greater than some amount relative to the maximum dimension of the aperture. By recognizing that Fresnel diffraction patterns are merely defocused Fraunhofer diffraction patterns, we show that the Fraunhofer criterion can be written precisely in terms of an allowable tolerance on defocus. This new criterion provides insight that is useful to optical designers and engineers who routinely deal with such tolerances. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.

Journal Title

Applied Optics

Volume

41

Issue/Number

13

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

2586

Last Page

2588

WOS Identifier

WOS:000175347500027

ISSN

1559-128X

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