Diffraction of scalar pulses at plane apertures: A different approach - Abstract

We generalize to scalar pulses with finite duration a previous work [1] in which a new approach to diffraction at plane apertures is developed for sca lar harmonic waves. A particular attention is given to rectangular pulse mo dulated signals for which an exact solution to the diffraction problem is o btained. As an example, the diffraction of a truncated harmonic pulse is in vestigated and the numerical problems to be solved are discussed with an im portant simplification when one is only interested in the diffraction patte rn far from the aperture. More works are needed for apertures with no simpl e geometrical form.