SENSITIVITY OF THE FRACTIONAL FOURIER-TRANSFORM TO PARAMETERS AND ITSAPPLICATION IN OPTICAL MEASUREMENT

The fractional Fourier transform (FRT) is becoming important in optics and can be used as a new tool to analyze many optical problems. Howev er, we point out that the FRT might be much more sensitive to paramete rs than the conventional Fourier transform. This sensitivity leads to higher requirements on the optical implementation. On the other hand, high parametric sensitivity can be used in optical diffraction measure ments. We give the first proposal, to our knowledge, of the FRT's appl ications in optical measurement. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.