FRACTIONAL FOURIER-KRAVCHUK TRANSFORM

We introduce a model of multimodal waveguides with a finite number of sensor points. This is a finite oscillator whose eigenstates are Kravc huk functions, which are orthonormal on a finite set of points and sat isfy a physically important difference equation. The fractional finite Fourier-Kravchuk transform is defined to self-reproduce these functio ns. The analysis of finite signal processing uses the representations of the ordinary rotation group SO(3). This leads naturally to a phase space for finite optics such that the continuum limit (N --> infinity) reproduces Fourier paraxial optics. (C) 1997 Optical Society of Ameri ca.