Diffraction Limit, Resolution, and Modulation Transfer Function

Book: Optics for Technicians

Author(s): Max J. Riedl

Published: 2015

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2197595.ch8

Abstract

Based on the wave hypothesis of light, there is an effect termed diffraction. Simply stated, when a plane wave-front passes an edge, there is a lateral spreading effect, termed diffraction, schematically depicted in Fig. 8.1. This diffraction effect is the reason that an object point cannot be imaged as a point, even if it can be predicted as such by geometric ray tracing.