Analytical and numerical analysis of linear optical systems

The numerical calculation of the Fresnel transform (FST) presents significant challenges due to the high sampling rate associated with the chirp function in the kernel. The development of an efficient algorithm is further complicated by the fact that the output extent of the FST is dependent on the propagation distance. In this paper, we implement a recently proposed technique for efficiently calculating the FST in which we apply the Wigner distribution function and the space bandwidth product to identify suitable sampling rates. This method is shown to be suitable for all propagation distances. Our method can also be applied to describe the effect of a thin lens modeled as a chirp modulation transform (CMT). Combining our results for the FST and the CMT, we numerically calculate the light distribution at the output of both Cai-Wang and Lohmann Type-I optical fractional Fourier transform (OFRT) systems. Analytic solutions for the OFRT of rectangular window and circular apertures are presented. The analytical solutions are compared to experimental data and to numerical results for equivalent cases. Finally the numerical method is applied to examine the effect that apertured lenses, in the OFRT system, have on the output distribution. (c) 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.