Operational notation for the analysis and synthesis of optical data-processing systems

This paper describes an operational notation that characterizes basic optical elements as block diagrams and that, for bandlimited optical systems, gives results identical to those obtained by rigorous application of the Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction formula. In an analysis of a basic optical system in terms of this operational notation, it is shown how the system can perform either the imaging operation or the Fourier transform operation. Repeated application of this basic system results in cascaded systems that perform more complex operations.