Non-paraxial diffraction of tiny pinhole illuminated by partially coherent light

Abstract

The theory of partial coherence has important applications in many fields such as optical system imaging, optical projection lithography, optical communication and speckle metrology. A tiny pinhole is essential to calibrate the wavefront error of the collimating lens when testing the wavefront error of the projection optics by using the method of Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. In this paper, a formulation is developed for investigating the intensity distribution in the far field diffracted by a circular tiny pinhole illuminated with partially coherent light. Assuming that aperture complex coherence is Bessel s correlation, the diffraction field far away from the pinhole is numerical calculated. The actual distribution of the field diffracted by the tiny pinhole is influenced by both the pinhole diameter and the coherence of light inside the pinhole aperture.