Optical Properties of Conic Surfaces I Reflecting Cone

Abstract

The optical properties of a reflecting cone, which have acquired fresh importance in connection with alignment measurements, are treated on the basis of Huygens’ principle. Approximate expressions for the intensity distributions in diffraction images of an axial point source and an off-axis one are derived by the stationary phase method. The results of the calculation are found to be in good agreement with the photographs of images made by an actual reflecting cone.