Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-2-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014-resit/10/4/solution

In wave optics, a finite lens aperture produces diffraction. Contributions interfere constructively near the geometric focus but form a finite point spread function, rather than a point of infinite intensity. For a uniformly illuminated circular aperture of diameter , the paraxial focal pattern is an Airy disk, with first dark-ring radius approximately . Aberrations can broaden or distort it further; even an ideal lens retains the finite diffraction scale.

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