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Journal of Modern Optics

Correlations in interference and diffraction

LU-MING DUAN GUANG-CAN GUO

Published Jan 1, 1998• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum formalism of Fraunhofer diffraction is obtained.The state of the diffraction optical field is connected with the state of the incident optical field by a diffraction factor.Based on this formalism, correlations of the diffraction modes are calculated with different kinds of incident optical fields.Influence of correlations of the incident modes on the diffraction pattern is analyzed and an explanation of the "ghost" diffraction is proposed.

DOI
10.1080/095003498152176

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Quantum formalism of Fraunhofer diffraction is obtained.The state of the diffraction optical field is connected with the state of the incident optical field by a diffraction factor.Based on this formalism, correlations of the diffraction modes are calculated with different kinds of incident optical fields.Influence of correlations of the incident modes on the diffraction pattern is analyzed and an explanation of the "ghost" diffraction is proposed.
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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.