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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Diffraction formulae using momentum eigenstates

Henri H. Arsenault, Pascuala Garcı́a-Martı́nez

Published Oct 1, 2003• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Diffraction mathematical theory of light can be derived from Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. Using the duality between position and momentum variables, we show that the momentum distribution of light coincides with the well-known angular spectrum distribution. The momentum distribution links quantum theory and relativity to classical diffraction theory. We also show that the Huygens Principle and the momentum distribution are conjugate expressions at the diffraction aperture. These considerations lead to the geometrical theory of diffraction.

DOI
10.1117/12.519634

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Diffraction mathematical theory of light can be derived from Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. Using the duality between position and momentum variables, we show that the momentum distribution of light coincides with the well-known angular spectrum distribution. The momentum distribution links quantum theory and relativity to classical diffraction theory. We also show that the Huygens Principle and the momentum distribution are conjugate expressions at the diffraction aperture. These considerations lead to the geometrical theory of diffraction.
Diffraction properties of light can be derived from Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. Using the fact that position and momentum are conjugate variables, we show that the momentum distribution of light coincides with the well-known angular spectrum distribution. The momentum distribution links quantum theory and relativity to classical diffraction theory. We also show that the Huygens Principle and the momentum distribution are conjugate expressions at the diffraction aperture. These considerations lead to the geometrical theory of diffraction.
Finding that in the formula of expansion of a function into a series of wave-like functions the coefficients are its Fourier transforms, if existed, we deduce mathematically all the principles and hypothesis that illustrated physicists utilized to build quantum mechanics a century ago, beginning with the duality particle-wave principle of Planck and including the Schrödinger equations. By the way, we find a simple Fourier transform relation between Dirac momentum and position bras and a useful permutation relation between operators in phase and Hilbert spaces. Moreover, from the found particle-wave duality formula we prove and obtain again essentially by mathematical analysis all the laws of wave optics concerning reflections, refractions, polarizations, diffractions by one or many identical 3D objects with various forms and dimensions.
Using the Fresnel–Kirchhoff integral, we express the state of the light that diffracts from an aperture to a point, by superposition of two or more waves. The amplitudes of the waves are determined by the distances of the point from the ray optics borders of the emerging beams. The interference approach to the Fresnel diffraction leads to a universal formulation of the normalized intensity distribution on the diffraction pattern that determines the state of the incident light, the parameters of the aperture, and its distance from the observation plane, uniquely. In the photon approach, according to the uncertainty principle, confining the position of a photon to an aperture changes the probable propagation direction of the photon in an interval that leads to the diffraction of the photon or light. Thus, the normalized intensity distribution on the diffraction pattern is the probability distribution of a photon. To this probability distribution, a probability amplitude distribution is associated that diffracts similar to a wave in Fresnel diffraction. Applying the introduced approach to the study of the diffraction, from different simple apertures and phase steps, we deduce general behaviors of the Fresnel diffraction and show it is involved in all aspects of light phenomena.
The long history of the dispute among physicists as to whether matter is composed of particles or waves is reviewed. A turning point came at the dawn of the 20th century in the form of the de Broglie momentum-wavelength and Bohr/Planck energy frequency relations. It was on this basis that Schrödinger developed a quantum mechanical differential equation whose solution came to be known as a wave function. The Born Interpretation of these functions holds that their absolute square constitutes a probability distribution which has been used successfully to make predictions of the properties of the system under discussion. It is pointed out that the phenomenon of light refraction played a key role in the development of both Newton’s corpuscular theory of light and the competing theory of Huygens which looks upon light as consisting exclusively of waves. It is shown that Newton’s failure to predict the decrease in the speed of light as it passes from air into water was not because of his belief in the particle composition of light, but rather because he not did anticipate that the mass of a photon changes upon entering a medium of higher index of refraction n. By assuming that the energy E of light is equal pc/n, where p is the momentum of the photons and c is the speed of light in free space, it is shown that the experimental dependence of the speed the light on its wavelength as it passes through a transparent medium is derived successfully through the use of Hamilton’s Canonical Equations and Newton’s Second Law of Kinetics. It is suggested that the relationship between particles and waves can be understood by noting that the localized properties of matter exhibit themselves in experiments such as the photoelectric effect where attention can be concentrated on the behavior of a single particle. The corresponding wave properties occur when large numbers of particles are observed under exactly similar circumstances, as for example in electron diffraction. ...........
While linear or angular position and momentum can be linked by a continuous or discrete Fourier transform, there are some subtle problems in the analogous Fourier relationship between radial position and radial momentum in history. Here we exploit radial position and newly introduced radial momentum variables to report a radial version of light's diffraction. The mask with single or multiple radial slits confines the light to a radial transmission function. As a result, in the radial momentum state space, we can observe the diffraction sidebands generated on the transmitted light due to a transverse restriction of the radial range. Our experimental results clearly reveal the intriguing diffraction behaviors between radial position and radial momentum variables at the single-photon level, making them another candidate for fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and for a variety of quantum information applications.