A physical optics approach to kinematical diffraction.

In this work the physical optics approach (Fourier Optics) that has been so successful in formulating the (multislice) high energy theory of electron diffraction is used to formulate the kinematical theory of electron diffraction. The resulting expressions already have the required phase factors and Ewald's sphere built in. A simple link to the weak phase object approximation and to the multislice theory is provided.