A simple method to simulate diffraction and speckle patterns with a PC

A simple, intuitive and pedagogical method is proposed in order to simulate the phenomenon of light diffraction in simple cases. A diffracting plane obstacle is simulated by means of a model with a variable transmittance from one point to another. A numerical matrix is built with transmittance values at those points taken as samples. The matrix is handled with the Matlab program, and the Fraunhofer approximation is used. The method is applied to variable module and constant phase transmittance obstacles in single slit, double slit, square window and round window cases. The method is also applied to an obstacle with a constant reflectance module and random variable phase with Gaussian statistics, which gives rise to speckle phenomenon. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.