In optics, the Airy disk (or Airy disc) and Airy pattern are descriptions of the best- focused spot of light that a perfect lens with a circular aperture can make, limited by the diffraction of light. The Airy disk is of importance in physics, optics, and astronomy.

The diffraction pattern caused when light passes through an aperture is called the Airy Disk. Find out how the Airy Disk can impact your image at Edmund Optics.

2018年9月11日 · This tutorial explores how Airy pattern size changes with wavelength and numerical aperture and it also simulates the close approach of two Airy patterns.

2024年5月28日 · Learn about the Airy disk, a key diffraction pattern formed when light passes through a circular aperture, crucial for understanding optical system resolution.

Diameter of the first minima (approximately the middle of the first dark ring) of diffraction pattern determines the " Airy disc ", in honor of the British astronomer Sir George B. Airy, who was the first to mathematically describe diffraction phenomenon back in 1834.

Learn about the basics of Airy disk patterns in microscopy, including their generation, size changes with illumination, and resolving power.

2018年9月10日 · Airy Pattern Formation. When an image is formed in the focused image plane of an optical microscope, every point in the specimen is represented by an Airy diffraction pattern having a finite spread.

The result is an Airy pattern, illustrated to the right in the tutorial, where the central Airy disk is surrounded by an alternating series of interlaced dark and light zones of diminishing intensity where the wavelets interfere both constructively (light zones) and destructively (dark zones).

Assuming a circular aperture, the image of a point source formed by the lens shows a small disk of light surrounded by a number of alternating dark and bright rings. This is known as the diffraction pattern or the Airy pattern. At the center of this pattern is the Airy disk.

This tutorial explores the effects of objective numerical aperture on the resolution of the central bright disks present in the diffraction pattern, commonly known as Airy disks.