Abstract
The far-field properties of a plane source with a constant phase distribution are presented. It is found, for the first time to our knowledge, that for any plane source the theoretical upper limit of the far-field divergence angle is shown to be 65.5°. This result is different from what previous propagation and diffraction theories predicted, and when the size of the source approaches zero, the far-field behavior of the plane source is also different from a spherical wave in half-space.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Xiaodong Zeng, Changhong Liang, and Yuying An
Appl. Opt. 36(10) 2042-2047 (1997)
Emmanuel M. Drège, Neal G. Skinner, and Dale M. Byrne
Appl. Opt. 39(27) 4918-4925 (2000)
Xiaodong Zeng and Amir Naqwi
Appl. Opt. 32(24) 4491-4494 (1993)