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Very good idea, Dan. Anybody out there knowing if there is a textbook using
QED to describe microscopes? Thanks, jens


On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Daniel White <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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>
> >I tried to construct a more intuitive (non-Fourier) diffraction model
> >of phase-contrast using Huygen's wavelets, but didn't get very far.
>
> >Shalin
>
> How about forgetting the waves idea,
> Which gets complicated very quickly...
> And instead use Feynman's quantum electrodynamics approach. Or plainly put,
> probability. That's how light, photons, really works. Waves are just a
> clunky approximation.
>
> Is there a way to calculate probability amplitudes in phase contrast?
>
> From that point of view light goes everywhere it can, whenever it can, with
> the same probability amplitude, and no need for complex ray or wave optics
> to describe it.
>
> The net effect of the probability amplitudes of all possible paths with
> their spinning components, all adding up will lead to the phase image. Then
> we see why optical path lengths are involved in also describing the
> contributions of scattered or diffracted rays?
>
> See YouTube videos of Feynman describing QED, the fits of light, in new
> Zealand in the 70s. The second lecture us particularly illuminating (boom
> boom!!!)
>
> Best
>
> Dan
>