Fresnel diffraction of cylindrical and spherical wavefronts from a phase plate

Abstract

In the last two decades, Fresnel diffraction (FD) of a plane wave from phase steps has been systematically studied and applied for precise measurements of light wavelength, and height and refractive index of the step. In this study we formulate FD of cylindrical and spherical wavefronts from a transparent step in transmission mode. It is shown that, the intensity distribution is a periodic function along the lines parallel to the plate edge. The phase distribution in this direction is a linearly varying function of the position squared, with a slope depends on the light wavelength, the plate thickness and refractive index, and the radius of wavefront curvature (RWC) on the observation plane. Therefore, it has significant potential in optical metrology, by a single-shot recording. The diffraction patterns are simulated and experimentally verified. Also, the RWC and displacement are determined as examples of applications in the experimental part of the report.