Partial Polarization in Three Theories of Electromagnetic Diffraction at an Aperture

Abstract

This paper continues the study initiated by B. Karczewski and E. Wolf concerning the comparison of three theories of electromagnetic diffraction at an aperture. The general case of a partially polarized incident field is investigated, and the degree of polarization of the diffracted field, as predicted by three theories, is expressed as a function of the degree of polarization of the incident field. The results obtained by Karczewski and Wolf are shown to hold in the limiting cases.