Young-Kirchhoff Theory of Diffraction in the Light of Sommerfeld's Solution

Abstract

Kirchhoff's theory of diffraction is derived by transforming the exact solution of Sommerfeld into surface integrals for the half-plane problem. It is shown that the exact solution directly yields the integral theorem of Kirchhoff in the context of the modified diffraction theory of Kirchhoff. The line integrals of Young-Rubinowicz are also derived by considering the rigorous solution of the reflected scattered fields for grazing incidence. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America