The Fractional Fourier Transform provide a comprehensive and widely accessible account of the subject covering both theory and applications. As a generalisation of the Fourier transform, the fractional Fourier transform is richer in theory and more flexible in applications but not more costly in implementation. This text consolidates knowledge on the transform and illustrates its application in diverse contexts. Applications studied so far fall mostly in the areas in optics and wave propagation and signal processing, including optical information processing, beam synthesis, phase retrieval, perspective projections, shift-variant filtering, image restoration, pattern recognition, tomography, data compression and time-frequency representations.
* Background material introduces time-frequency analysis emphasizing the Wigner distribution, ambiguity function and canonical transforms.
* Chapter on phase-space optics employs matrix algebra in a unified manner for both wave and geometrical optics, leading to many important results such as those on general Fourier transform planes and optical invariants.
* Separate discussion of optics for readers with no interest in optics.
Unifying knowledge from the mathematics, optics and signal processing literature in a manner accessible to a broad audience, this book is of interest to researchers, engineers, and senior undergraduate and graduate students in electrical engineering, physics, and mathematics.

Die Fraktionale Fourier-Transformation bietet ein elegantes mathematisches Fundament zur Diskussion der Beugung und anderer grundlegender Eigenschaften optischer Systeme. In diesem Buch erläutern die Entdecker ihre Methode einem grö eren Publikum mit dem Ziel, die Entwicklung neuer Anwendungen zu fördern. Beschrieben werden auch Studien zur Fresnelschen Beugung, zur Ausbreitung optischer Strahlen, zu Resonatoren aus sphärischen Spiegeln und zur Signaldetektion. (02/00)