The Cornu Spiral

The Cornu spiral is a graphical aid for evaluating the Fresnel integrals which show up in the evaluation of the diffraction intensities for the Fresnel diffraction of the light from a slit. It lends itself to the calculation of diffraction from slits, barriers, and opaque strips.

Cornu Spiral

The Cornu spiral is a graphical aid for evaluating the Fresnel integrals which show up in the evaluation of the diffraction intensities for the Fresnel diffraction of the light from a slit. It lends itself to the calculation of diffraction from slits, barriers, and opaque strips.

The eyes of the spirals at (.5,.5) and (-.5,-.5) represent image plane points at infinity.

The V-value associated with a given image plane point is determined by the Fresnel geometry.