Fresnel diffraction of fractal grating and self-imaging effect.

Based on the self-similarity property of fractal, two types of fractal gratings are produced according to the production and addition operations of multiple periodic gratings. Fresnel diffractions of fractal grating are analyzed theoretically, and the general mathematic expressions of the diffraction intensity distributions of fractal grating are deduced. The gray-scale patterns of the 2D diffraction distributions of fractal grating are provided through numerical calculations. The diffraction patterns take on the periodicity along the longitude and transverse directions. The 1D diffraction distribution at some certain distances shows the same structure as the fractal grating. This indicates that the self-image of fractal grating is really formed in the Fresnel diffraction region. The experimental measurement of the diffraction intensity distribution of fractal grating with different fractal dimensions and different fractal levels is performed, and the self-images of fractal grating are obtained successfully in experiments. The conclusions of this paper are helpful for the development of the application of fractal grating. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America