ABSTRACT
Physical optics treats the propagation of radiation in terms of its electromagnetic wave nature. There are a number of treatments of physical optics (e.g., Jenkins and White, 1937; Born and Wolf, 1959). Geometrical optics (see Chapter 3) may be considered to be the limit of physical optics as the wavelength ap proaches zero. Some concepts from physical optics are important in geometrical optics as well.
