SPIE - Education Fourier Optics SC1254

This course aims to familiarize optics researchers with the power of the Fourier transform and its application in all branches of linear optics. We will cover concepts of field propagation in both time and space and employ useful properties of the Fourier transform to gain understanding into physical phenomena and simplify our calculations. The first part of the course will be dedicated to describing the Fourier transform in 1D, 2D, and 3D, along with its most important properties, relevant to optical signals. The second part will be focused on applying the Fourier transform to solving optical problems of practical interest, as follows. 1D: pulse propagation in dispersive media, plane wave propagation in space; 2D: light diffraction on arbitrary apertures, imaging of two-dimensional objects, spatial and temporal coherence, holography; 3D: light scattering under the Born approximation and tomographic reconstructions.