| Abstract: | The new optical effect of diffractive multifocal focusing of radiation, predicted earlier by theory, on a bicomponent diffraction system with small Fresnel numbers that consists of two plane screens with circular apertures on given optical axes, is confirmed experimentally. It is shown that the diffraction picture in the focal planes of such a system represents the circular nonlocal bands of the Fresnel zones with a bright narrow peak at the center, whose intensity in the experiment can exceed by six to ten times the value of the incident plane-wave intensity. Experimentally it is established that the diffractive multifocal focusing of radiation on real screens with axial circular apertures, whose diameters exceed the radiation wavelength, is insensitive to the rough external conditions: thickness of the screens, irregularities of the edges and nonideal form of the apertures, heterogeneity of the initial distribution of the incident-wave intensity, and changes in the medium of the wave propagation. |
