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An electromagnetic wave propagating along a path C has the phase shift over C as if it was propagating a path in a vacuum, length of which, is equal to the optical path length of C. Thus, if a wave is traveling through several different media, then the optical path length of each medium can be added to find the total optical path length. The ...
This article summarizes equations used in optics, including geometric optics, ... Energy density in an EM wave ... With Modern Physics (12th ed.). Addison-Wesley ...
"Actually Huygens’ principle is not correct in optics. It is replaced by Kirchoff’s [sic] modification which requires that both the amplitude and its derivative must be known on the adjacent surface. This is a consequence of the fact that the wave equation in optics is second order in the time.
Fermat supported the opposing assumptions, i.e., the speed of light is finite, and his derivation depended upon the speed of light being slower in a denser medium. [12] [13] Fermat's derivation also utilized his invention of adequality, a mathematical procedure equivalent to differential calculus, for finding maxima, minima, and tangents. [14] [15]
[12] [13] Fermat's principle is most familiar, however, in the case of visible light: it is the link between geometrical optics, which describes certain optical phenomena in terms of rays, and the wave theory of light, which explains the same phenomena on the hypothesis that light consists of waves.
In optics, the Fraunhofer diffraction equation is used to model the diffraction of waves when plane waves are incident on a diffracting object, and the diffraction pattern is viewed at a sufficiently long distance (a distance satisfying Fraunhofer condition) from the object (in the far-field region), and also when it is viewed at the focal plane of an imaging lens.
[11] [12] A finite ray or real ray is a ray that is traced without making the paraxial approximation. [12] [13] A parabasal ray is a ray that propagates close to some defined "base ray" rather than the optical axis. [14] This is more appropriate than the paraxial model in systems that lack symmetry about the optical axis.
Propagation of a ray through a layer. The transfer-matrix method is a method used in optics and acoustics to analyze the propagation of electromagnetic or acoustic waves through a stratified medium; a stack of thin films.