Effect of multiple equidistant imaging: analyzing the techniques of its monochromatic reproduction and the forms of manifestation.
Monochromatic imaging systems with spatial-frequency filters in the form of Fabry-Perot interferometers, concentric ring masks, and diffractive multifocal lenses are shown to realize the same effect of multiple equidistant imaging. However, the forms of manifestation of this effect are not identical due to the difference in spectral content of generated wave fields. Self-imaging fields with a discrete angular spectrum inherent in the systems with masks and interferometers are found to comprise a subclass of periodically focused fields with a continuous angular spectrum peculiar to the systems with diffractive multifocal lenses. The advantages of the latter systems are the extremely high total light efficiency and the sharply defined longitudinal localization of generated wave fields, which enhance the brightness of the reproduced images and decreases their parasitic diffraction dispersion, background noise, and blurring.
Sedukhin
Andrey G
AG
Institute of Automation and Electrometry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia. sedukhin@iae.nsk.su