Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction integral

ID: fresnel-kirchhoff-diffraction-integral

A scalar aperture approximation that sums the secondary waves reaching an observation point. For a point source with incident spherical amplitude , one common forward-normal convention is
Here and are source-to-aperture and aperture-to-observer distances and is an obliquity factor. The Fresnel diffraction approximation retains quadratic path phase; Fraunhofer diffraction additionally neglects the quadratic phase across the aperture. Kirchhoff boundary assumptions do not give an exact electromagnetic solution at a sharp edge.

New to topics? Read the docs here!