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Updated: May 15, 2026

Digital Inline Holographic Microscopy (DIHM) of Weakly-scattering Subjects
Published on: February 8, 2014
A diffractive mechanism of focusing
W B Case1, E Sadurni, W P Schleich
1Department of Physics, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa 50112, USA.
Abstract:
We examine the free time evolution of a rectangular one dimensional Schrödinger wave packet of constant phase during the early stage which in the paraxial wave approximation is identical to the diffraction of a scalar field from a single slit. Our analysis, based on numerics and the Cornu spiral reveals considerable intricate detail behavior in the density and phase of the wave. We also point out a concentration of the intensity that occurs on axis and propose a new measure of width that expresses this concentration.
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