The Fourier Transform And Its Applications To Optics

The discovery of the Fractional Fourier Transform and its role in optics and data management provides an elegant mathematical framework within which to discuss diffraction and other fundamental aspects of optical systems. This book explains how the fractional Fourier transform has allowed the generalization of the Fourier transform and the notion of the frequency transform. It will serve as the standard reference on Fourier transforms for many years to come.

Applications of Optical Fourier Transforms is a 12-chapter text that discusses the significant achievements in Fourier optics. The opening chapters discuss the Fourier transform property of a lens, the theory and applications of complex spatial filters, and their application to signal detection, character recognition, water pollution monitoring, and other pattern recognition problems. These topics are followed by a computation of the statistical characteristics of the Fourier irradiance patterns and the hybrid systems that combine the best of optics, analog electronics, and digital computers to solve problems. The subsequent chapters examine the pulse-Doppler and chirp signals, the significance of signal-to-noise power spectrum in the information content measurement of photographic film and in image quality determinations. This text also considers the application of nonlinear systems and their components to Fourier optics. The discussions then shift to the application of Fourier methods to the study of spatial information transmission through the human visual system, as well as the application of coherent techniques to vision research. The concluding chapters deal with the well-known pattern recognition problems related to the digital signal processing community. These chapters also look into a general theoretical model of light field propagation from input to output. This book will be of value to optical scientists and vision researchers.

Ray, wave and quantum concepts are central to diverse and seemingly incompatible models of light. Each model particularizes a specific ''manifestation'' of light, and then corresponds to adequate physical assumptions and formal approximations, whose domains of applicability are well-established. Accordingly each model comprises its own set of geometric and dynamic postulates with the pertinent mathematical means.At a basic level, the book is a complete introduction to the Wigner optics, which bridges between ray and wave optics, offering the optical phase space as the ambience and the Wigner function based technique as the mathematical machinery to accommodate between the two opposite extremes of light representation: the localized ray of geometrical optics and the unlocalized wave function of wave optics.At a parallel level, the analogies with other branches of both classical and quantum physics, like classical and quantum mechanics, quantum optics, signal theory as well as magnetic optics, are evidenced by pertinent comments and/or rigorous mathematics. So, the Lie algebra and group methods are introduced and explained through the elementary optical systems within both the ray and wave optics contexts, the former being related to the symplectic group and the latter to the metaplectic group. In a like manner, the Wigner function is introduced by following the original issue to individualize a phase space representation of quantum mechanics, which is mirrored by the issue to individualize a local frequency spectrum within the signal theory context. The basic analogy with the optics of charged particles inherently underlying the ray-optics picture in phase space is also evidenced within the wave-optics picture in the Wigner phase space. · amalgamation of a great deal of contributions having witnessed the phase space picture of optics over the past 30 years· introduces abstract concepts through concrete systems· hosts of figures and logical diagrams to favour intuition and to introduce mathematics· emphasis on the interrelations with quantum optics, signal theory and magnetic optics · feeds a feeling for genuine issues in higher mathematics and theoretical physics

This textbook deals with fourier analysis applications in optics, and in particular with its applications to diffraction, imaging, optical data processing, holography and optical communications. Fourier analysis is a universal tool that has found application within a wide range of areas in physics and engineering and this third edition has been written to help your students understand the complexity of a subject that can be challenging to grasp at times. Chapters cover foundations of scalar diffraction theory, Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction moving onto Wave-Optics Analysis of Coherent Optical Systems and Wavefront Modulation. Joseph Goodman’s work in Electrical Engineering has been recognised by a variety of awards and honours, so his text is able to guide students through a comprehensive introduction into Fourier Optics.

"A clear and straightforward introduction to the Fourier principles behind modern optics, this text is appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate students."--Page 4 of cover.