Abstract

Within the framework of the thermal-wave model, the quantumlike description of electron optics in terms of the propagator is given. First we briefly review the standard description in configuration space by analogy to quantum mechanics and in connection with recent investigations of charged-particle-beam transport that have used the concept of propagator. Then new insights are given by extension of the analysis of the particle-beam propagator to the phase-space context for which our system is described by the Wigner quasi-distribution function, as well as to the tomography context for which our system is described by the marginal distribution. Furthermore, the integrals of motion of a charged-particle beam and their relation to the propagator concept are discussed. Finally, the perturbation theory for a charged-particle-beam propagator is developed in the above-described two contexts and is applied to some simple optical devices.

© 2000 Optical Society of America

Optical phase space, Wigner representation, and invariant quality parameters

R. Simon and N. Mukunda
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17(12) 2440-2463 (2000)

Structure of the set of paraxial optical systems

R. Simon and Kurt Bernardo Wolf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17(2) 342-355 (2000)

Focal shift, optical transfer function, and phase-space representations

Colin J. R. Sheppard and Kieran G. Larkin
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17(4) 772-779 (2000)

Wave-kinetic method, phase-space path integrals, and stochastic wave propagation

Ioannis M. Besieris
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 2(12) 2092-2099 (1985)

Universal invariants of quantum-mechanical and optical systems

Victor V. Dodonov and Olga V. Man’ko
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17(12) 2403-2410 (2000)