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The wavelets forming a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) are subject to the uncertainty principle of Fourier analysis respective sampling theory: [4] given a signal with some event in it, one cannot assign simultaneously an exact time and frequency response scale to that event. The product of the uncertainties of time and frequency response ...
The Huygens–Fresnel principle (named after Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens and French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel) states that every point on a wavefront is itself the source of spherical wavelets, and the secondary wavelets emanating from different points mutually interfere. [1] The sum of these spherical wavelets forms a new wavefront.
[3] [4] According to the Huygens–Fresnel principle, each point on a wavefront can be considered a secondary point source of waves, so a new wavefront is formed after the secondary wavelets have traveled for a period equal to one vibration cycle. This new wavefront can be described as an envelope or tangent surface to these secondary wavelets. [5]
The plane wavefront is a good model for a surface-section of a very large spherical wavefront; for instance, sunlight strikes the earth with a spherical wavefront that has a radius of about 150 million kilometers (1 AU). For many purposes, such a wavefront can be considered planar over distances of the diameter of Earth.
The new wavefront, then, is the tangential surface to all the secondary wavelets in the direction of propagation. [13] Critical to Huygens’s analysis is that these secondary wavelets can be mathematically constructed, allowing one to work backward from the secondary wavelets to construct a primary wave which has traveled for a certain time.
Because diffraction is the result of addition of all waves (of given wavelength) along all unobstructed paths, the usual procedure is to consider the contribution of an infinitesimally small neighborhood around a certain path (this contribution is usually called a wavelet) and then integrate over all paths (= add all wavelets) from the source to the detector (or given point on a screen).
On the other hand, if the waves to be superposed originate by subdividing a wavefront into infinitesimal coherent wavelets (sources), the effect is called diffraction. That is the difference between the two phenomena is [a matter] of degree only, and basically, they are two limiting cases of superposition effects. Yet another source concurs: [4]
A diffraction pattern of a red laser beam projected onto a plate after passing through a small circular aperture in another plate. Diffraction is the deviation of waves from straight-line propagation without any change in their energy due to an obstacle or through an aperture.