Short Note

[OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 8, No. 6 (2001) 495-497]

Babinet's Principle in Scalar Theory of Diffraction

J. R. JIMÉNEZ^* and E. HITA

Departamento de Óptica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

(Received February 13, 2001; Accepted August 8, 2001)

In this work, we present an original proof of Babinet's principle within the framework of the scalar theory of diffraction. The proof is derived in the case of the Fraunhofer diffraction, directly from the Fresnel-Kirchhoff formula, using properties of Fourier analysis and integral calculus, without considering Babinet's principle itself for scalar waves. From the same proof, we also mathematically verify that, in the case of Fresnel diffraction, Babinet's principle is fulfilled but in its more general scalar version.

Key words: diffraction, scalar theory of diffraction, Fraunhofer diffraction, Fresnel diffraction

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