In order to explain the diffraction phenomenon of light sneaking into shaded regions, C. Huygens (1678) claimed, “In the process of propagation of the wave, new wave fronts are emanated from every point of the old wave front”. This principle, however, had a serious drawback in that the wave front, as drawn, generated an unwanted wave front in the backward direction in addition to the wave front in the forward direction. This drawback was overcome by A. J. Fresnel (1818) and later by G. Kirchhoff (1882) by taking the periodic nature of the wave into consideration.
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© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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(2008). Basic Theory of Diffraction. In: Engineering Optics. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 35. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75724-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75724-7_3
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