Transmittance Characteristics of Surface Diffusers and the Design of Nearly Band-Limited Binary Diffusers*

Abstract

The autocorrelation of the amplitude transmittance of surface diffusers and their scattering characteristics are related to the optical-path autocorrelation for several sets of optical-path statistics. Simple relationships are found for the gaussian case and experimental evidence is given to support the view of a ground-glass surface being accurately modeled by a gaussian process. Some closed-form results are also obtained for binary diffusers, including the design of a quasi-band-limited binary diffuser with a much improved power spectrum.