Abstract
A new method of representing the image-forming process as two stages of diffraction is proposed. In the first stage an incoherent self-luminous or diffusely reflecting object generates a partial coherence pattern in the entrance pupil plane of the imaging system, as described by Hopkins in 1951. In the second stage any two entering rays are regarded as producing a Young interference pattern of appropriate position, spacing and modulation to reconstitute the object in the image plane. The analysis is not only applicable to a lens, but to a zone plate and fly's eye system, as given by Rogers in 1962, and various other more indirect methods of image formation. The method is equivalent to reinterpreting the old Abbe theory of microscopic vision in new and less restricting physical terms.
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