THE DIFFRACTION INTEGRAL FOR THICK LENS OPTICAL ARRAYS

This work deals with the propagation of coherent and incoherent light through an optical array made with thick lens elements. For incoherent illumination, the diffraction integral is solved numerically to obtai n the electric field distribution on the plane of the synthetic image. The kernel of the diffraction integral is solved in the paraxial appr oach for small misalignment angles. For larger misalignment angles the method of calculation is modified to include this non-paraxial bt beh aviour. For coherent illumination, the intensity distribution on the s ynthetic image plans is discussed.