Fraunhofer diffraction by a thin wire and Babinet’s principle

Salvatore Ganci

Citation: American Journal of Physics 73, 83 (2005); doi: 10.1119/1.1791274

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 Fraunhofer diffraction by a thin wire and Babinet’s principle
Salvatore Gancia)
Liceo Scientifico di Stato ‘‘G. Marconi,’’ Piazza del Popolo, 14, 16043 Chiavari, Italy
共Received 7 September 2003; accepted 16 July 2004兲
The Fraunhofer diffraction of a Gaussian wave field incident on a thin wire is examined. It is shown
theoretically and experimentally that a simple application of Babinet’s principle leads to erroneous
results. © 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers.
关DOI: 10.1119/1.1791274兴

In experiments on Fraunhofer diffraction, it usually is as-
sumed that the incident beam is a plane monochromatic
wave. Babinet’s principle,1 as often quoted in textbooks2– 4 or
in the pedagogical literature5,6 predicts identical diffracted
wave fields for complementary apertures. The only differ-
ence of the fields of the complementary apertures is an on-
axis term. However, this statement of Babinet’s principle is
misleading if the incident wave is not a plane wave. In the
following, we will consider a practical case for which the
application of Babinet’s principle requires caution when ap-
plied to a Fraunhofer diffraction pattern if the illumination is
not by a plane wave.
Consider a unit amplitude plane monochromatic wave nor-
mally incident through an aperture A in an absorbing screen,
and let the complementary screen be A c . The diffracted wave
fields u A (x 0 ,y 0 ) and u C (x 0 ,y 0 ) are7
where (x 0 ,y 0 ) are the coordinates in the observation plane at
a distance z (zⰇx) from the aperture. The first integral in
Eq. 共2兲 is simply the incident wave. For the special case of
plane wave illumination, the on-axis term of the incident
wave and the diffraction pattern of the far-field noncomple-
mentary aperture are observed.
A more general and correct form of Babinet principle8,9
within the framework of Huygens’ principle10 共namely in the
treatment that follows from the Kirchhoff or Rayleigh–
Sommerfeld integral formulas兲 states that the wave fields
u A (x 0 ,y 0 ) and u C (x 0 ,y 0 ) for the diffracted wave fields
through an aperture A and a complementary screen C must
satisfy
u A 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 ⫹u C 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 ⫽u 0 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 , 共3兲
where u 0 (x 0 ,y 0 ) is the unperturbed incident wave field at the

冋 册
point P(x 0 ,y 0 ).
exp共 ikz 兲 ik 2
u A 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 ⫽ exp 共 x ⫹y 20 兲 The example of Fraunhofer diffraction for an incident
i␭z 2z 0 Gaussian wave field illustrates the meaning of Babinet’s

冕冕 冋
2␲
⫻ exp ⫺i
A ␭
and for the complementary aperture, because A C ⫽1⫺A,
u c 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲
册
principle. For the case of a normally incident plane mono-
共 xx 0 y y 0 兲 dx dy, 共1兲 chromatic wave, a sinc distribution with a central spot due to
the on-axis term is expected for a rectilinear wire. However,
the peculiarity of the Gaussian distribution is to give a su-
perposition with a sinc term that gives two minima as is
visible in Fig. 1.

冕 冕 冋 册
The laser beam from a common He–Ne laser has a wave
exp共 ikz 兲 ⫹⬁ ⫹⬁ k field with a Gaussian amplitude distribution. Namely, if
⫽ exp i 关共 x⫺x 0 兲 2 ⫹ 共 y⫺y 0 兲 2 兴
i␭z ⫺⬁ ⫺⬁ 2z ⌿(x,y) is the wave field in the plane of incidence x,y, then

⫻dx dy⫺
exp共 ikz 兲
i␭z
exp
ik 2
冋
共 x ⫹y 20 兲
2z 0 册 ⌿ 共 x,y 兲 ⫽exp„⫺b 共 x 2 ⫹y 2 兲 …,
where b is a constant. If the wave field is incident on a
共4兲

冕冕 冋 册
rectilinear wire of width l x , then for the Fraunhofer approxi-
2␲ mation, the diffracted wave field u(x 0 ,y 0 ) at the (x 0 ,y 0 ),
⫻ exp ⫺i 共 xx 0 ⫹y y 0 兲 dx dy, 共2兲
A ␭ plane is11

u 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 ⫽
exp共 ikz 兲
i␭z
exp
ik 2
冋
共 x ⫹y 20 兲
2z 0 册再 冕 冕⫺t x /2

⫺⬁
⫹⬁

⫺⬁
冋
exp关 ⫺b 共 x 2 ⫹y 2 兲兴 exp ⫺i
2␲
␭z
共 xx 0 ⫹y y 0 兲 dx dy册
⫹ 冕 冕
⫹⬁

t x /2 ⫺⬁
⫹⬁
exp关 ⫺b 共 x 2 ⫹y 2 兲兴 exp ⫺i 冋 2␲
␭z 册 冎
共 xx 0 ⫹y y 0 兲 dx dy

⫽
exp共 ikz 兲
i␭z
exp
ik 2
冋
共 x ⫹y 20 兲
2z 0 册再 冕 冕⫹⬁

⫺⬁
⫹⬁

⫺⬁
冋
exp关 ⫺b 共 x 2 ⫹y 2 兲兴 exp ⫺i
2␲
␭z 册
共 xx 0 ⫹y y 0 兲 dx dy⫺
exp共 ikz 兲
i␭z

⫻exp 冋 ik 2
共 x ⫹y 20 兲
2z 0 册冕 冕⫹l x /2

⫺t x /2
⫹⬁

⫺⬁
冋
exp关 ⫺b 共 x 2 ⫹y 2 兲兴 exp ⫺i
2␲
␭z 册 冎
共 xx 0 ⫹y y 0 兲 dx dy . 共5兲

83 Am. J. Phys. 73 共1兲, January 2005 http://aapt.org/ajp © 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers 83
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Fig. 1. The phenomenology of the thin wire diffraction problem. The pres-
ence of two sharp minima inside the central peak of the sinc distribution is
evident. Laser source: Uniphase 1125 P; power: 5 mW; beam diameter (1/e 2
point兲: 0.81 mm 共manufacturer’s data兲. Wire width 0.30 mm; distance of the
observation plane⫽2.35 m. The photograph was taken by a direct projection
of the diffraction pattern onto photographic film 共Ilford FP4兲 with an inten-
Fig. 2. Graphical plot of the intensity from Eq. 共6兲 generated by MATH-
EMATICA 4.0. Parameters of the plot: b⬇3.049 mm⫺2 , z⬇2.35 m, l x
⫽0.30 mm, and ␭⫽632.8 nm. Shown is the intensity distribution of the
diffracted wave field versus position 共mm兲. The maximum intensity of the
incident Gaussian beam is taken to be unity. The two above mentioned
minima are a distance of about 2 mm from the center in agreement with
experimental observation.

冑
sity filter interposed.
␲ exp共 ikz 兲
u 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 ⫽ exp共 ⫺by 20 兲
b i␭z

The integral extending from ⫺⬁ to ⫹⬁ in Eq. 共5兲 is the

Fourier transform of a Gaussian wave field, whereas the
ik 2
⫻exp
2z 冋
共 x 0 ⫹y 20 兲 l x 册冋
sin共 ␲ l x f x 兲
␲lx f x
. 册
共8兲
evaluation of the last integral requires a McLaurin expansion The same approximation for the incident wave field is
of the Gaussian function. adopted in Eqs. 共6兲 and 共8兲. The Babinet principle as stated
The first-order McLaurin expansion of Eq. 共4兲 gives in Ref. 1 is incorrect; the diffracted wave fields for comple-
⌿(x,y)⫽exp(⫺by2), and hence Eq. 共5兲 yields mentary apertures not only differ in the on-axis wave field,

冋 册冑 冉 冊
but also differ in the off-axis diffracted field. It is easy to
exp共 ikz 兲 ik 2 ␲ ␲ 2 y 20 verify that Eqs. 共6兲 and 共8兲 are consistent with Eq. 共2兲 and in
u 共 x 0 ,y 0 兲 ⫽ exp 共 x ⫹y 20 兲 exp ⫺ 2 2 agreement with the conclusions of Ref. 10.

冋 册
i␭z 2z 0 b b␭ z

⫻ 冑 冉
␲ ␲ 2 x 20
exp ⫺ 2 2 ⫺l x 冊 冉
sin ␲ l x
x0
␭z 冊 . 共6兲
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The revisions and specific suggestions of an anonymous
referee are gratefully acknowledged.
b b␭ z x0
␲lx a兲
␭z Electronic mail: salvatore_ganci@vodafone.it
1
M. Babinet, ‘‘Mémoires d’optique météorologique,’’ C. R. Acad. Sci. 4,
An inspection of Eq. 共6兲 shows that the wave field becomes 638 – 648 共1837兲.
2
Jurgen R. Mayer-Arendt, Introduction to Classical and Modern Optics
zero when
共Prentice–Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1972兲, p. 162.

冉 冊
3
L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifchitz, The Classical Theory of Fields 共Perga-
x0

冑 冉 冊
mon, Oxford, 1962兲, pp. 176 –178.
sin ␲ l x
␲ ␲ 2 x 20 ␭z 4
D. W. Tenquist, R. M. Whittle, and J. Yarwood, University Optics 共Iliffe
exp ⫺ 2 2 ⫽l x . 共7兲 Books, London, 1970兲, Vol. 2, p. 275.
b b␭ z x0 5
T. B. Greenslade, Jr., ‘‘Diffraction by a cat’s whisker,’’ Phys. Teach. 38,
␲lx 422 共2000兲.
␭z 6
S. M. Curry and A. L. Shawlow, ‘‘Measuring the diameter of a hair by
diffraction,’’ Am. J. Phys. 42, 412– 413 共1974兲.
Equation 共7兲 can be solved graphically for x 0 . The cross 7
Joseph W. Goodman, Introduction to Fourier Optics 共McGraw-Hill, New
section (y 0 ⫽0) of the intensity I(x 0 )⫽ 兩 u(x 0 ,y 0 兩 2 is shown York, 1968兲, pp. 57– 62.
in Fig. 2 and two minima inside the central maximum of the 8
Arnold Sommerfeld, Optics 共Academic, New York, 1954兲, pp. 204 –205.
sinc term is in agreement with experimental observation 共see 9
Max Born and Emil Wolf, Principles of Optics 共Pergamon, London, 1959兲,
Fig. 1兲. p. 380.
10
J. R. Jiménez and E. Hita, ‘‘Babinet’s principle in scalar theory of diffrac-
Obviously the same approximation, ⌿(x,y)⬇ exp tion,’’ Opt. Rev. 8, 495– 497 共2001兲.
(⫺by2), holds if the complementary slit is used instead of a 11
Reference 7, Chaps. 2 and 4.
thin wire and gives the well known distribution12 12
Reference 7, pp. 62– 63.

84 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 73, No. 1, January 2005 Salvatore Ganci 84

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