DIFFRACTION OF APERTURED GAUSSIAN BEAMS - SOLUTION BY EXPANSION IN CHEBYSHEV POLYNOMIALS

A differential equation satisfied by the diffraction integral as a fun ction of the off-axis coordinate in the observation plane is derived a nd its solution is obtained by expansion in Chebyshev polynomials. The resulting series provides an analytic expression for the diffraction integral and is convenient for fast numerical computation. The efficie ncy of this approach allows us to use it in optimization of optical sy stems in which diffraction effects must be taken into consideration.