Generalized Debye integral
Zongzhao Wang, Olga Baladron-Zorita, Christian Hellmann, Frank Wyrowski
Abstract
The Debye integral is an essential technique in physical optics, commonly used to efficiently tackle the problem of focusing light in lens design. However, this approximate method is only valid for systems that are well designed and with high enough Fresnel numbers. Beyond this assumption, the integral formula fails to provide accurate results. In this work, we generalize the Debye integral to overcome some of its limitations. The theory explicitly includes aberrations and extends the integral to fields on tilted planes in the focal region. We show, using examples, that the new formulas almost reach the accuracy of a rigorous modeling technique while being significantly faster.