Abstract

Diffraction of quasimonochromatic partially space-coherent light by annular apertures, which are of fundamental importance when reflecting components are used, has been examined theoretically. The work on slit and circular apertures by previous workers has been briefly reviewed. Use has been made of Schell’s theorem which gives the relationship between the far-field intensity and the Fourier transform of the product of the source autocorrelation function and the correlation function across the diffracting aperture. Exponential, besinc, and sinc forms of the degree of coherence have been assumed and the results are presented for three typical values of the central obstruction of the circular aperture.

© 1969 Optical Society of America

Diffraction by Apertures Illuminated with Partially Coherent Light*

Robert A. Shore, Brian J. Thompson, and Robert E. Whitney
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 56(6) 733-738 (1966)

Image of a General Periodic Bar Pattern through an Aberration-Free Annular Aperture

K. Singh and A. K. Kavathekar
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(8) 936-941 (1969)

Effect of Amplitude Filter on the Partially Space-Coherent Diffraction of a Defocused Optical System

P. K. Katti and B. N. Gupta
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(1) 41-44 (1972)

Image quality in an optical system operating in partially coherent light: effect of parabolic motion

P. C. Gupta and K. Singh
Appl. Opt. 15(9) 2233-2240 (1976)

Effect of the Phase Term in the Mutual Coherence Function on Aperture-Diffraction Patterns

R. A. Shore
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 58(11) 1484-1490 (1968)