ANALYTIC FOURIER OPTICS - ENCODING OF INFORMATION BY COMPLEX ZEROS

An extension of Fourier concepts in optics is presented, indicating the importance of analyticity for describing propagating fields. The paper highlights the particular nature of the analyticity that may be associated with fields in propagation, namely an entire and exponential type character. Such analytic functions are described uniquely by a denumerable infinity of zeros, distributed near or on the real axis. The paper presents a study of the way in which the zeros encode the information on scatterers and fields. © 1979 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.