Coma aberration in diffraction from a narrow slit

摘要

It is shown that a light beam diffracting from a narrow slit (width on the order of magnitude of the wavelength of the incident light) at oblique incidence exhibits coma aberration. The motivation for this study was simulation of an optical system in which light is emitted from a waveguide array at an oblique angle. It was found that the coma aberration of the slit or waveguide array is canceled out exactly by the coma aberration of a collimating plano-convex cylindrical lens. Analytical expressions, numerical simulation results and laboratory results are presented.