Explanatory Python notebooks for Fourier Optics
Simple things are called simple for a reason, but it is really annoying when you can't find a nice explanation or visualization of something because everybody just assumes it is simple, so we don't need to explain it. I didn't like that, especially since I like going back to the basics sometimes, no matter how simple they're perceived to be.
This is specifically true when those simple things are the basis for a more complicated topic, like Fourier Optics. Fourier Optics is really cool, but without knowing the basics, you won't get far. And in order to learn the basics, you need to be able to look them up somewhere... So, I thought, I could start making notebooks as I go back to those simple things while exploring the world of Fourier Optics.
This is neither a full treatment nor even a full overview, but merely a collection of illustrations and explanationsn of things I like to be able to come back to. I have tried to make the notebooks build on top of each other in terms of what you need to know for the next step, but this will not always hold true.
These notebooks also build greatly on external material. I am not here because I think I can explain all these things better, but because I wanted to make a collection of notes and resources with which I personally understood these topics better, not from scratch. And I am sharing them, because maybe somebody would find this ueseful, but other materials like actual books on the topic will be much mor thorough, and my notebooks are just meant to be used as supporting material.
As a last note: why notebooks? I work with Fourier Optics in Python and a lot of what I am talking about in the notebooks is the numerical treatment of Fourier Analysis, hence I decided to showcase my materials collection in Python. It also helps me to have a code basis I can come back to.