Open AccessMultipole and plane wave expansions of diverging and converging fields
Author(s) -
Thanh Xuan Hoang,
Xudong Chen,
Colin J. R. Sheppard
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.008949
Subject(s) - multipole expansion , diffraction , physics , optics , harmonics , plane wave , debye , fast multipole method , field (mathematics) , plane (geometry) , light field , computational physics , geometry , quantum mechanics , mathematics , voltage , pure mathematics
This paper presents and compares two basis systems, spherical harmonics and plane waves, for studying diverging and converging beams in an optical system. We show a similarity between a converging field and the time reversed field of a radiation field. We present and analyze the differences between the Debye-Wolf diffraction integral and the multipole theory for focusing of polarized light. The Debye-Wolf diffraction integral gives a well-known anomalous behavior on the optical axis and at the edge of the focused beam that can be avoided by using the multipole theory.