Refinement of a discontinuity-free edge-diffraction model describing focused wave fields

Abstract

Two equivalent forms of a refined discontinuity-free edge-diffraction model describing the structure of a stationary focused wave field are presented that are valid in the framework of the scalar Debye integral representation for a diffracted rotationally symmetric converging spherical wave of a limited yet not-too-low angular opening. The first form describes the field as the sum of a direct quasi-spherical wave and a plurality of edge quasi-conical waves of different orders, the optimum discontinuity-free angular spectrum functions of all the waves being dependent on the polar angle only. According to the second form, the focused field is fully characterized by only three components--the same quasi-spherical wave and two edge quasi-conical waves of the zero and first order, of which the optimum discontinuity-free angular spectrum functions are dependent on both the polar angle and the polar radius counted from the geometrical focus.