title: Diffraction of spatiotemporally localized X-wave pulses from a screen containing two rectangular slits.
abstract: The diffraction of X-waves from a screen containing two slits is investigated. It is shown that when the peak of the incident X-wave hits the screen midway between the slits, two pulses are generated from each slit. These pulses follow laterally skewed trajectories relative to the direction of propagation of the incident X-wave along the central axis of the configuration. One of the two pulses converges on the central axis and the other diverges away from it. A geometrical construction explaining the behavior of these pulses is provided. It is shown that the trajectory of each radiated pulse can be deduced from the intersection of two curved wavefronts emanating from the two edges of each slit. The pulses converging on the central axis meet at a certain range, thus suggesting a novel focusing scheme.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The American University of Cairo, P.O. Box 2611, Cairo 11511, Egypt.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Shaarawi
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: El-Halawani
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Besieris