Diplomová práca pojednáva o skalárnej teórii difrakcie a zavádza dôležité riešenie vlnovej rovnice a to elipticky symetrický Gaussov zväzok. V praktickej časti bude popísané modelovanie difrakcie na kruhovom otvore dvoma rôznymi prístupmi. Model bude experimentálne overený experimentom. V záverečnej časti bude kriticky pojednané o výsledkoch experimentu a simulácie.

[pt] Este trabalho trata do problema da difração das ondas eletromagnéticas por obstáculos do tipo gume de faca com perfil transversal qualquer. A partir da integral de Huygens-Fresnel (formulação escalar) e da integral de Stratton-Chu (formulação vetorial) é estabelecida uma solução em forma fechada para o problema, cujas interpretação física e aplicações práticas são bastante simples. Os resultados teóricos são verificados por comparação com medidas experimentais para três tipos de perfil transversal: semi-circular, triangular e rampa. Através da mesma formulação é investigado o comportamento do campo atrás do obstáculo, onde existe uma região de interferência formada pelas diversas contribuições independentes do campo difratado. Procurou-se ainda, nos casos dos obstáculos triangular e rampa, interpretar os resultados finais em termos do raio da 1(primeira) zona de Fresnel. Embora o modelo utilizado seja limitado por não considerar a dimensão do obstáculo no sentido de propagação (longitudinal), as conclusões obtidas são de grande importância para os enlaces radioelétricos que operam por difração. / [en] The present work deals with the problem of the diffraction of electromagnetic waves by knife-edge obstacles with arbitrary transverse profile. From the Huygens-Fresnel (acalar formulation) and the Stratton-Chu ( vectorial formulation) integrals, a closed-form solution for the problem is establications. The theoretical results are verified by comparison with experimental measurements fot three kinds od profiles: semi-circular, triangular and ramp. Using this same formulation, the behavior of the field behind the obstacle is investigated, where a region of interference exists caused by the several independet contributions of the diffracted field. An attempt was made to interpret the final results in terms of the first Fresnel zone radius in cases of triangular and ramp obstacles. Although the model used here is limited for not taking into account the longitudinal dimension of the obstacles, the obtained conclusions have major importance to radio links operating in diffraction.

Cool molecular hydrogen H2 may be the ultimate possible constituent to the Milky-Way missing baryon. We describe a new way to search for such transparent matter in the Galactic disc and halo, through the diffractive and refractive effects on the light of background stars. By simulating the phase delay induced by a turbulent medium, we computed the corresponding illumination pattern on the earth for an extended source and a given passband. We show that in favorable cases, the light of a background star can be subjected to stochastic fluctuations of the order of a few percent at a characteristic time scale of a few minutes. We have searched for scintillation induced by molecular gas in visible dark nebulae as well as by hypothetical halo clumpuscules of cool molecular hydrogen (H2_He) during two nights, using the NTT telescope and the IR SOFI detector. Amongst a few thousands of monitored stars, we found one light-curve that is compatible with a strong scintillation effect through a turbulent structure in the B68 nebula. Because no candidate were found toward the SMC, we are able to establish upper limits on the contribution of gas clumpuscules to the Galactic halo mass. We show that the short time-scale monitoring of a few 10^6 star _ hour in the visible band with a >4 m telescope and a fast readout camera should allow one to interestingly quantify or constrain the contribution of turbulent molecular gas to the Galactic halo.

L'hydrogène moléculaire diffus et froid peut être l'un des candidats ultimes à la composante baryonique cachée de la Voie Lactée. Nous décrivons une nouvelle voie de recherche de matière transparente dans le disque et le halo galactiques, qui exploite les effets de diffraction et de réfraction de la lumière des étoiles d'arrière-plan. En simulant le retard de phase induit par un milieu turbulent, nous avons calculé la figure d'éclairement sur la terre d'une source étendue pour une bande passante donnée. Nous montrons que dans les cas favorables, la luminosité apparente d'une étoile d'arrière-plan peut être soumise à des fluctuations stochastiques de l'ordre de quelques pour cent sur une échelle de temps caractéristique de quelques minutes. Nous avons recherché de tels effets de scintillation, induits par du gaz moléculaire de nébuleuses visibles (sombres), ainsi que par d'hypothétiques (invisibles) clumpuscules d'hydrogène moléculaire froid du halo, pendant deux nuits avec le détecteur infra-rouge SOFI au foyer du télescope NTT de l'ESO. Parmi les quelques milliers d'étoiles surveillées, nous avons détecté un objet dont les variations sont compatibles avec un fort effet de scintillation à travers une structure turbulente de la nébuleuse B68. Comme par ailleurs aucun effet de scintillation n'a été trouvé vers le Petit Nuage de Magellan, nous sommes en mesure d'établir des limites supérieures sur la contribution des clumpuscules de gaz à la masse du halo galactique. Nous montrons qu'une surveillance à cadence élevée dans la bande visible avec un télescope de diamètre supérieur à quatre mètres équipé d'une caméra à lecture rapide devrait permettre, avec une exposition de quelque millions (d'heures x étoiles), de quantifier ou de borner d'une façon très significative la contribution du gaz moléculaire turbulent au halo Galactique. / Cool molecular hydrogen H2 may be the ultimate possible constituent to the Milky-Way missing baryon. We describe a new way to search for such transparent matter in the Galactic disc and halo, through the diffractive and refractive effects on the light of background stars. By simulating the phase delay induced by a turbulent medium, we computed the corresponding illumination pattern on the earth for an extended source and a given passband. We show that in favorable cases, the light of a background star can be subjected to stochastic fluctuations of the order of a few percent at a characteristic time scale of a few minutes. We have searched for scintillation induced by molecular gas in visible dark nebulae as well as by hypothetical halo clumpuscules of cool molecular hydrogen (H2_He) during two nights, using the NTT telescope and the IR SOFI detector. Amongst a few thousands of monitored stars, we found one light-curve that is compatible with a strong scintillation effect through a turbulent structure in the B68 nebula. Because no candidate were found toward the SMC, we are able to establish upper limits on the contribution of gas clumpuscules to the Galactic halo mass. We show that the short time-scale monitoring of a few 10^6 star _ hour in the visible band with a >4 m telescope and a fast readout camera should allow one to interestingly quantify or constrain the contribution of turbulent molecular gas to the Galactic halo.