Norikane KANAI and Hiroshi ITO

Fukui Institute of Technology, 3-6-1, Gakuen, Fukui, 910 Japan

(Accepted October 25, 1994)

Diffraction patterns of wedges are studied with special attention to the finish of the samples. We assume that the sharply finished vertex should generate two hemispherical waves by the end effect of the cylindrical waves issued from two sides of the wedge under illumination of the coherent light. It is found that the assumption is valuable to the investigation of the diffraction pattern appearing in the shadow region of the wedge.

Key words : boundary diffraction wave, diffracted wave, hemispherical wave, diffraction, wedge