Defocusing of a converging electromagnetic wave by a plane dielectric interface

Abstract

We study how a converging spherical wave gets distorted by a plane dielectric interface. The fields in the second medium are obtained by evaluating the m-theory diffraction integral on the interface. The loss of intensity and the form of the intensity distribution are investigated. Examples are presented for various refractive-index contrasts and depths of focus. In general the intensity gets spread out over a volume that is large compared with the case without refractive-index contrast. It was found that moving the focusing lens a distance d toward the interface does not result in an equal shift of the intensity profile. This latter point has important practical implications.