Abstract

In Fourier optics, imaging systems are viewed as linear systems characterized by their impulse response, also called “the point spread function”. If f is the complex amplitude transmission function characterizing an object uniformly iluminated by coherent light, then the image g formed by the system is given, in the one-dimensional case and for aberration-free systems of aperture Ω, by the following integral equation: where magnification factors are omitted and [−X, X] is the support of f. The Rayleigh resolution distance is given by R = 7π/Ω.

© 1992 Optical Society of America