wave propagation and fourier optics453.701 Linear Systems, S.M. Tan, The University of Auckland 7-1 Chapter 7 Wave propagation and Fourier optics Fourier optics describes propagation of light in optical systems using Fourier transform techniques. These techniques are useful since many operations are linear and spatially shift-invariant. They form the basis for analyzing and designing optical imaging and computation systems. 7.1 Propagation of light in the paraxial approximation Although the classical wave description of light is as a transverse electromagnetic wave, many e¤ects can be studied using a scalar rather than the full vector wave equation. In free space, we have @2 @2 @2 1 @2 + + = @x2 @y 2 @z 2 c2 @t2 (7.1) In this equation represents a component of the electric or magnetic …eld. For monochromatic, coheren……