Further investigations of the multiple knife-edge attenuation function

The multiple knife-edge MKE attenuation function is derived from Federal Fresnel-Kirchhoff theory and compared with the original derivation from Furutsu's generalized residue series. It is shown that the two methods give complex attenuations with the same absolute magnitude but differing in phase. The analytical basis for an improved computational procedure is developed that eliminates the changeover values and abrupt discontinuities of attenuation inherent in the original MKE computer program. A brief discussion of precious MKE diffraction results is presented and an example comparison is made with the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction and the approximations of Epstein-Peterson and Deygout.