Abstract

The position of the first minimum or stationary value which appears in the irradiance beyond the end of the geometrical image in the image plane of an objective with a narrow annular aperture when a line element of uniform radiance lies in the object plane is examined for its relation to the length of the line element. The line element is assumed to be self-radiant or its equivalent by scattering. A table of the relation between line length and the position of the first minimum or stationary value is presented for lengths 2K in the range 0≦2K≦5.728 Airy units. Line elements as short as 0.4 Airy unit appear measurable by this method.

© 1964 Optical Society of America

Optical Measurement of Self-Radiant Line Elements by the Method of Steepest Slopes*

Harold Osterberg and Luther W. Smith
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(3) 406-410 (1964)

Resolution of Shape of Self-Radiant Line Elements*

Harold Osterberg and Luther W. Smith
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(5) 599-605 (1964)

Diffraction Images of Circular Self-Radiant Disks

Luther W. Smith and Harold Osterberg
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 51(4) 412-414 (1961)

Effects of Arbitrarily Located Phase Errors upon Contrast in the Image*

Harold Osterberg and Luther W. Smith
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(4) 525-528 (1964)

Measurement of the Total Illuminance in a Diffraction Image. Part II. Line Sources

Richard Barakat, Alfred Newman, and Ronald Humphreys
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(10) 1256-1260 (1964)