Wide-window angular spectrum method for optical field propagation through ABCD systems

The wide-window angular spectrum (WWAS) method is proposed to simulate field propagation through paraxial optical systems, mainly based on the Collins formula and the scaled Fourier transform (SFT). The application of the SFT algorithm makes the sampling processes in the input space, output space and spatial-frequency domains completely independent, and as a result, we can choose a larger calculation window size for simulating long-distance propagation without increasing the calculation burden. The sampling criteria are derived analytically and used in the numerical simulations to present the correctness and effectiveness of the WWAS algorithm. The advantages of the algorithm are shown by making a comparison with other angular spectrum methods for the free-space propagation case.