Wavefronts, caustics, and ronchigrams of a spherical wave reflected by a spherical mirror

The aim of the present work is twofold: first we obtain analytical expressions for both the wavefronts and the caustic associated with the light rays reflected by a spherical mirror after being emitted by a point light source located at an arbitrary position in free space, and second, we describe, i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Jorge Castro Ramos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:México
Institución:Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional del INAOE
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx:1009/2147
Acceso en línea:http://inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1009/2147
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Wavefronts
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Caustics
info:eu-repo/classification/Inspec/Spherical wave
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/1
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/22
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2209
Descripción
Sumario:The aim of the present work is twofold: first we obtain analytical expressions for both the wavefronts and the caustic associated with the light rays reflected by a spherical mirror after being emitted by a point light source located at an arbitrary position in free space, and second, we describe, in detail, the structure of the ronchigrams when the grating or Ronchi ruling is placed at different relative positions to the caustic region and the point light source is located on and off the optical axis. We find that, in general, the caustic has two branches: one is a segment of a line, and the other is a two-dimensional surface. The wavefronts, at the caustic region, have self intersections and singularities. The ronchigrams exhibit closed-loop fringes when the grating is placed at the caustic region. © 2013 Optical Society of America