Abstract

The complex ray-tracing theory developed earlier [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 5, 200 ( 1988)] is applied to a study of the structure of the electromagnetic focal field spectrum of paraboloidal mirrors. This problem was treated recently by Barakat [ Appl. Opt. 26, 3790 ( 1987)], who used the Gaussian vectorial diffraction method. In this paper a more general solution to the problem is presented that uses the Stratton–Chu–Silver integral. The reflecting kernel then explicitly incorporates the surface function, the surface physical parameters and their dependence on the state of polarization of the incident radiation, and an unrestricted aberration function. Numerical results are presented for mirrors made of four different metals, and their use in optimizing the mirror design is demonstrated.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

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