On the polarization behavior of diffraction by small elliptic aperture

Abstract A theory on the diffraction of an elliptic Bethe–Bouwkamp aperture illuminated by a polarized plane-wave is established. The fictitious surface magnetic densities of charges and currents are rigorously represented by rewriting Bouwkamp’s partial differential equations into vectorial expressions, and hence the electromagnetic field is described in a compact form. The polarization behaviors of both near-field diffraction and far-field radiation with respect to the incident light field are discussed. Novel phenomena owing to the geometry of elliptic aperture are demonstrated.