Huygens-Fresnel principle and Diffraction

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the Huygens-Fresnel principle and its implications for diffraction phenomena, particularly how wavefronts become increasingly circular as the slit size decreases. The user references "Introduction to Modern Optics" by Fowles, which mathematically describes this phenomenon through the Fresnel-Kirchhoff Formula. The explanation highlights that reducing the aperture localizes disturbances, causing them to propagate symmetrically, akin to circular waves produced by a pebble dropped in water.

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You can check out Introduction To Modern Optics by Fowles for a classical mathematical description of the phenomenon. This book casts Huygen's principle into the Fresnel-Kirchhoff Formula and then applies it in several settings. If you think about it, shrinking the aperture localizes the disturbance to a "point-like" area. When the disturbance then propagates (towards the left in the picture), the "point-like" area bothers all of its surrounding neighbors, which bother their neighbors, etc...; symmetrically. It is like dropping a pebble in a pond and producing a circular wavefront.
 
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