Pedagogical Approach to Modeling Diffractive Phenomena via Discrete Implementation of the Huygens-Fresnel Principle

The Huygens-Fresnel Principle is a fundamental principle of optics. However fundamental the principle may be, it can be abstract to students embarking on their study of physics of light. Modeling well known diffractive phenomena using a discrete implementation of the Huygens-Fresnel Principle moves the principle from the realm of the theoretical to an applications-based context. Taking a computational approach creates physical context through which students can visualize and better understand the Huygens-Fresnel Principle. The Huygens-Fresnel Principle is applied computationally towards the well known phenomena of double- and single-slit diffraction and then turned towards more advanced topics—namely Fresnel versus Fraunhofer diffraction and a Fourier theory of diffraction. Basic computational techniques are presented as a working framework for faculty who wish to adopt this approach within their curriculum.