Diffraction theory for azimuthally structured Fresnel zone plate

A conventional Fresnel zone plate (FZP) consists of concentric rings with an alternating binary transmission of zero and one. In an azimuthally structured Fresnel zone plate (aFZP), the light transmission of the transparent zones is modulated in the azimuthal direction, too. The resulting structure is of interest for extreme ultraviolet and x-ray imaging, in particular, because of its improved mechanical stability as compared to the simple ring structure of an FZP. Here, we present an analysis of the optical performance of the aFZP based on scalar diffraction theory and show numerical results for the light distribution in the focal plane. These will be complemented by calculations of the optical transfer function. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America