Imaging system of wavelet optics described by the Gaussian linear frequency-modulated complex wavelet

The image formation and the point-spread function of an optical system are analyzed by use of the wavelet basis function. The image described by a wavelet is no longer an indivisible whole image. It is, rather, a complex image consisting of many wavelet subimages, which come from the changes of different parameters (scale) a and c, and parameters b and d show the positions of wavelet subimages under different scales. A Gaussian frequency-modulated complex-valued wavelet function is introduced to express the point-spread function of an optical system and used to describe the image formation. The analysis, in allusion to the situation of illumination with a monochromatic plain light wave, shows that using the theory of wavelet optics to describe the image formation of an optical system is feasible.