Abstract

Path integration has proved quite useful in the treatment of propagation problems in a variety of fields and in quantum mechanics in particular. It is, therefore, natural that the formal similiarity between the Schrodinger wave equation and the paraxial optical wave equation should inspire the use of path integration in optics. Path integrals have been used in optics for over a decade, and their use in optics is increasing. Although path integration is often used to study optics problems in an analytic manner, this formalism is increasingly found to provide the basis of efficient computational techniques. I discuss recent applications of path-integral-based analytic and computational approaches to problems ranging from computer-aided device design in integrated optics to development of a path integral expression for the time-evolution operator associated with Maxwell’s equations.

© 1988 Optical Society of America