We report the propagation dynamics of Airy light beams under non-paraxial conditions. It is studied using the general approach which deals with Fourier expansion of the beam. We show the transformation of the beam from the Airy form as the paraxiality parameter decreases. The role of evanescent waves in non-paraxial regime is discussed.
We present the spatially accelerating solutions of the Maxwell equations. Such non-paraxial beams accelerate in a circular trajectory, thus generalizing the concept of Airy beams. For both TE and TM polarizations, the beams exhibit shape-preserving bending with sub-wavelength features, and the Poynting vector of the main lobe displays a turn of more than 90 degrees. We show that these accelerating beams are self-healing, analyze their properties, and compare to the paraxial Airy beams. Finally, we present the new family of periodic accelerating beams which can be constructed from our solutions…
Spatially accelerating beams that are solutions to the Maxwell equations may propagate along incomplete circular trajectories, after which diffraction broadening takes over and the beams spread out. Taking these truncated Bessel wave fields to the paraxial limit, some authors sustained that it is recovered the known Airy beams (AiBs). Based on the angular spectrum representation of optical fields, we demonstrated that the paraxial approximation rigorously leads to off-axis focused beams instead of finite-energy AiBs. The latter will arise under the umbrella of a nonparaxial approach following …
In this Letter we propose the concept of the evanescent Airy beam. We analyze the structure of the ideal evanescent Airy beam, which initial profile has the Airy form, while the spectral decomposition consists of only evanescent partial waves. Also, we discuss the refraction of the Airy beam through the interface and investigate the field of the transmitted evanescent Airy beam.
The 3D Airy beam (AiB) is thoroughly explored from a wave-theory point of view. We utilize the exact spectral integral for the AiB to derive local ray-based solutions that do not suffer from the limitations of the conventional parabolic equation (PE) solution, and are valid far beyond the paraxial zone and for longer ranges. The ray topology near the main lobe of the AiB delineates a hyperbolic umilic diffraction catastrophe, consisting of a cusped double-layered caustic, but this caustic is deformed in the far range where the field loses its beam shape. The field in the vicinity of this caust…
The explicit expression for spatial-temporal Airy pulse is derived from the Maxwell's equations in paraxial approximation. The trajectory of the pulse in the time-space coordinates is analysed. The existence of a bifurcation point that separates regions with qualitatively different features of the pulse propagation is demonstrated. At this point the velocity of the pulse becomes infinite and the orientation of it changes to the opposite.
With Rytov approximation theory, we derive the analytic expression of detection probability of Airy vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) through an anisotropic weak oceanic turbulence. We investigate the influences of turbulence parameters and beam parameters on the propagation properties of Airy-OAM beam. The numerical simulation results show that the anisotropic oceanic turbulence with a lower dissipation rate of temperature variance, smaller ratio of temperature and salinity contributions to the refractive index spectrum, higher dissipation rate of kinetic energy per unit mas…
We explore the morphological properties of symmetric Airy beams in the paraxial and nonparaxial regimes. We consider a 2D electromagnetic realization with a single transverse component of the electric field, and in the nonparaxial regime, the longitudinal component along the optic axis. The general structure of these beams is analyzed with the combination of several approaches: geometrical optics through the use of caustics, the asymptotic wave properties of the light field using the stationary wave approximation and numerical integration. The geometrical optics approach involves locating the …
We investigate in detail the focusing of a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam ($\hbar \ell$ orbital angular momentum per photon; $σ=1/-1$ for left/right-handed polarization) by a high numerical aperture objective. The diffraction-limited focused beam has unexpected properties, resulting from a strong interplay between the angular spatial structure and the local polarization in the non-paraxial regime. In the region near the beam axis, and provided that $|\ell|\ge 2$ and $\ell$ and $σ$ have opposite signs, the energy locally counter-propagates and the projection of the electric f…
The paraxial model of propagation is an approximation to the model described by the d'Alembert equation. It is widely used to describe beam propagation and near-field diffraction patterns. Therefore, its use in optics and acoustics engineering is rather general. On the other hand, energetic balance and momentum in the electromagnetic or acoustic frameworks are well-known and lay in their own physical context. When dealing with paraxial solutions, these analyses are not so clear since paraxial propagation is not supported by the electromagnetic or mechanic theory. The present document establish…
We derive focused laser pulse solutions to the electromagnetic wave equation in vacuum. After reproducing beam and pulse expressions for the well-known paraxial Gaussian and axicon cases, we apply the method to analyse a laser beam with Lorentzian transverse momentum distribution. Whilst a paraxial approach has some success close to the focal axis and within a Rayleigh range of the focal spot, we find that it incorrectly predicts the transverse fall-off typical of a Lorentzian. Our vector-potential approach is particularly relevant to calculation of quantum electrodynamical processes in weak l…
A uniform asymptotic theory of the free-space paraxial propagation of coherent flattened Gaussian beams is proposed in the limit of nonsmall Fresnel numbers. The pivotal role played by the error function in the mathematical description of the related wavefield is stressed.
We study the giant Goos-Hanchen shift obtained from an Airy beam impinging on a nonlinear interface. To avoid any angular restriction associated with the paraxial approximation, the analysis is based on the numerical solution of the nonlinear Helmholtz equation. We report the existence of non-standard intermittent and oscillatory regimes for the nonlinear Goos-Hanchen shifts which can be explained in terms of the competition between the critical coupling to a surface mode of the reflected component of the Airy beam and the soliton emission from the refracted beam component.
In this letter, we introduce a new class of light beam, the circular symmetric Airy beam (CSAB), which arises from the extensions of the one dimensional (1D) spectrum of Airy beam from rectangular coordinates to cylindrical ones. The CSAB propagates at initial stages with a single central lobe that autofocuses and then defocuses into the multi-rings structure. Then, these multi-rings perform the outward accelerations during the propagation. That means the CSAB has the inverse propagation of the abruptly autofocusing Airy beam. Besides, the propagation features of the circular symmetric Airy vo…
In the study of laser-driven electron acceleration, it has become customary to work within the framework of paraxial wave optics. Using an exact solution to the Helmholtz equation as well as its paraxial counterpart, we perform numerical simulations of electron acceleration with a high-power TM01 beam. For beam waist sizes at which the paraxial approximation was previously recognized valid, we highlight significant differences in the angular divergence and energy distribution of the electron bunches produced by the exact and the paraxial solutions. Our results demonstrate that extra care has t…
A concise method of deriving expressions for Gaussian-like solutions of the paraxial and d'Alembert equations is presented. This method is based on the Hankel transform. Choosing some Gaussian base functions with slight modifications of the prefactor all basic beams of cylindrical character can be easily obtained. This refers to Gaussian, Bessel-Gaussian, modified Bessel-Gaussian, Laguerre-Gaussian and Kummer-Gaussian (i.e., Hypergeometric-Gaussian) beams although potentially other beams can come into play as well. For instance a new type of a beam that can be derived in this way is described …
We construct solutions of the paraxial and Helmholtz equations which are polynomials in their spatial variables. These are derived explicitly using the angular spectrum method and generating functions. Paraxial polynomials have the form of homogeneous Hermite and Laguerre polynomials in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates respectively, analogous to heat polynomials for the diffusion equation. Nonparaxial polynomials are found by substituting monomials in the propagation variable $z$ with reverse Bessel polynomials. These explicit analytic forms give insight into the mathematical structure of…
We present a method for the realization of radially and azimuthally polarized nonparaxial Bessel beams in a rigorous but simple manner. This result is achieved by using the concept of Hertz vector potential to generate exact vector solutions of Maxwell's equations from scalar Bessel beams. The scalar part of the Hertz potential is built by analogy with the paraxial case as a linear combination of Bessel beams carrying a unit of orbital angular momentum. In this way we are able to obtain spatial and polarization patterns analogous to the ones exhibited by the standard cylindrically polarized pa…
We use caustic beam shaping on 100 fs pulses to experimentally generate non-paraxial accelerating beams along a 60 degree circular arc, moving laterally by 14 \mum over a 28 \mum propagation length. This is the highest degree of transverse acceleration reported to our knowledge. Using diffraction integral theory and numerical beam propagation simulations, we show that circular acceleration trajectories represent a unique class of non-paraxial diffraction-free beam profile which also preserves the femtosecond temporal structure in the vicinity of the caustic.
We experimentally generate an Airy beam with polarization structure while keeping its original amplitude and phase profile intact. This class of Airy beam preserves the acceleration properties. By monitoring their initial polarization structure we have provided insight concerning the self-healing mechanism of Airy beams. We investigate both theoretically and experimentally the self-healing polarization properties of the space-variant polarized Airy beams. Amplitude as well as the polarization structure tends to reform during propagation in spite of the severe truncation of the beam by finite a…
Ultra-broadband hyperbolic Airy beams are experimentally realized and spatio-temporally characterized. Transmissive (refractive) and reflective cubic phase elements were used to impose a cubic phase on the input beam. Nondispersing beams are produced in reflective geometry, while the main lobe of the hyperbolic Airy beam created with a transmissive refractive phase element suffered from lateral dispersion.
Second moment beam widths are commonly used in paraxial optics to define the focal extent of beams. However, second moments of arbitrary beams are not guaranteed to be finite. I propose the focal concentration area as a measure of beam focal area, defined to be the ratio of total radial intensity to radial intensity regulated by a unit area Gaussian distribution. I use the Dirac delta limit of this distribution to establish a rigorous upper bound on the peak intensity of non-paraxial beams of a given total intensity, and show that this is achieved by the recently proposed `proto- beam' solutio…
In this paper, we present the experimental generation of Airy beams via computational and photorefractive holography. Experimental generation of Airy beams using conventional optical components presents several difficulties and are practically infeasible. Thus, the optical generation of Airy beams has been made from the optical reconstruction of a computer generated hologram implemented in a spatial light modulators. In the photorefractive holography technique, being used for the first time to our knowledge, the hologram of an Airy beam is constructed (recorded) and reconstructed (reading) opt…
In this paper, we have developed an analytic method for describing Airy-Type beams truncated by finite apertures. This new approach is based on suitable superposition of exponentially decaying Airy beams. Regarding both theoretical and numerical aspects, the results here shown are interesting because they have been quickly evaluated through a simple analytic solution, whose characteristics of propagation has agreed with those already published in literature through the use of numerical methods. To demonstrate the method's potentiality, three different truncated beams have been analyzed: ideal …
In this work, I present a full analytical theory for the Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov shifts experienced by an Airy beam impinging on a dielectric surface. In particular, I will show how the decay parameter $α$ associated with finite energy Airy beams is responsible for the occurence of giant angular shifts. A comparisons with the case of Gaussian beams is also discussed.
We investigate, through simulation, the modifications to Bessel and Airy beams during propagation through atmospheric turbulence. We find that atmospheric turbulence disrupts the quasi-non-diffracting nature of Bessel and Airy beams when the transverse coherence length (Fried parameter) nears the initial aperture diameter or diagonal respectively. The turbulence induced transverse phase distortion limits the effectiveness of Bessel and Airy beams for applications requiring propagation over long distances in the turbulent atmosphere.
We report the observation of arbitrary accelerating beams designed using a non-paraxial description of optical caustics. We use a spatial light modulator-based setup and techniques of Fourier optics to generate circular and Weber beams subtending over 95 degrees of arc. Applying a complementary binary mask also allows the generation of periodic accelerating beams taking the forms of snake-like trajectories, and the application of a rotation to the caustic allows the first experimental synthesis of optical accelerating beams upon the surface of a sphere in three dimensions.
We investigate on the nonlinear dynamics of Airy beams in a regime where nonlinear losses due to multi-photon absorption are significant. We identify the nonlinear Airy beam (NAB) that preserves the amplitude of the inward Hänkel component as an attractor of the dynamics. This attractor governs also the dynamics of finite-power (apodized) Airy beams, irrespective of the location of the entrance plane in the medium with respect to the Airy waist plane. A soft (linear) input long before the waist, however, strongly speeds up NAB formation and its persistence as a quasi-stationary beam in compari…
We present a set of paraxial light beams with cylindrical symmetry, smooth and localized transversal profile carrying finite power, that develop intensity singularities when they are focused in a linear medium, such as vacuum. They include beams with orbital angular momentum and with radial polarization, in which case they develop punctual phase and polarization singularities surrounded by infinitely bright rings, along with singular longitudinal fields. In practice, these effects are manifested in focal intensities and spot sizes, vortex bright ring intensities and radii, and strengths of the…
In this work, we present the experimental optical trap of microparticles with an Airy beams array using a holographic optical tweezers. The Airy beams array are attractive for optical manipulation of particles owing to their non--diffracting and autofocusing properties. An Airy beams array is composed of N Airy beams which accelerate mutually and symmetrically in opposite direction, for different ballistic trajectories, that is, with different initial launch angles. Based on this, we developed a holographic optical tweezers system for the generation of non-diffracting beams and with it, we inv…
In this work we study the natural focusing of Airy beams symmetric under reflection of the transverse coordinates. Following a recent proposal, their angular spectra depend on the absolute value of the third power of the transverse components of the wave vector. We show that these beams are related to Airy and Scorer special functions. The caustics have a morphology that does not correspond to the ones described by standard catastrophe optics. The structural stability of symmetric Airy beams is experimentally probed
The interactions between copropagating ring-Airy beams in a (2+1)-dimensional Kerr medium are numerically investigated for the first time. It is shown that two overlapping ring-Airy beams in such a medium produce controllable regions of very low intensity during propagation, the geometry of which can be manipulated by the tuning of initial beam parameters. This may prove useful for future optical tweezing applications in the nonlinear regime.
We analyze the paraxial beam transformation upon reflection and refraction at a plane boundary. In contrast to the usual approach dealing with the beam angular spectrum, we apply the continuity conditions to explicit spatial representations of the electric and magnetic fields on both sides of the boundary. It is shown that the polarization-dependent distortions of the beam trajectory (in particular, the "longitudinal" Goos-Hänchen shift and the "lateral" Imbert-Fedorov shift of the beam center of gravity) are directly connected to the incident beam longitudinal component and appear due to its …
In this work, we present the theoretical and experimental study of the propagation of Airy beams when passing through two convex lenses with different focal distances. The theoretical analysis is presented from a matrix optical model for an Airy beam. The experimental results are obtained in a holographic setup for experimental generation of Airy beams based on the holographic reconstruction system of computer generated holograms (CGH) implemented electronically in a spatial light modulator (SLM) and a 4f Fourier transformation system. These are in agreement with the theoretical prediction. Th…
We report on a simple experimental scheme based on a pair of cylindrical lenses (convex and concave) of same focal length and common optical elements producing high power optical beams in 1D and/or 2D Airy intensity profiles with laser polarization as control parameter. Using an ultrafast Yb-fiber laser at 1064 nm of average power of 5 W in Gaussian spatial profile and pulse-width of ~180 fs, we have generated 1D and 2D Airy beams at an efficiency of 80% and 70%, respectively, and pulse width of ~188 fs and ~190 fs, respectively. We have measured the transverse deflection rate of 1D and 2D bea…
Optical Airy beam, as a novel non-diffracting and self-accelerating wave packet, has generated great enthusiasm since its first realization in 2007, owing to its unique physics and exciting applications. Here, we report a new form of this intriguing wave packet - plasmonic Airy beam, which is experimentally realized on a silver surface for the first time. By particular diffraction processes in a carefully designed nano-array structure, a novel planar Airy beam of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is directly generated and a structural dependent phase tuning method is proposed to modulate the bea…
It is theoretically shown that an end-pumped microchip laser formed by a thin laser crystal with plane-plane but slightly tilted facets can emit, under appropriate pumping conditions and near a crystal edge, a truncated self-accelerating Airy output beam.
We present a detailed study of two novel methods for shaping the light optical wavefront by employing a transmissive spatial light modulator (SLM). Conventionally, optical Airy beams are created by employing SLMs in the so-called all phase mode. In the first method, a numerically simulated lens phase distribution is loaded directly onto the SLM, together with the cubic phase distribution. An Airy beam is generated at the focal plane of the numerical lens. We provide for the first time a quantitative properties of the formed Airy beam. We derive the formula for deflection of the intensity maxim…
An absorptive Rayleigh dielectric sphere in a non-diffracting non-paraxial fractional Bessel vortex beam experiences a spin torque. The axial and transverse radiation spin torque components are evaluated in the dipole approximation using the radiative correction of the electric field. Particular emphasis is given on the polarization as well as changing the topological charge and the beam's half-cone angle. When the beam order is zero, the axial spin torque component vanishes. However, when the beam order becomes a real positive number, the vortex beam induces left-handed (negative) axial spin …
In this paper we perform a fusion between two important theoretical methodologies, one related to the Frozen Wave beams, which are non-diffracting beams whose longitudinal intensity pattern can be chosen a priori in an medium (absorbing or not), and the other related to the Airy-Type pulses, which are pulses resistant to dispersion effects in dispersive materials. As a result, a new method emerges, capable of providing vortex pulses resistant to three concomitant effects, i.e.: diffraction, dispersion and attenuation; while concurrently the spatial variation of the wave intensity along its axi…
We demonstrate the dual accelerating Airy-Talbot recurrence effect, i.e., the self-imaging of accelerating optical beams, by propagating a superposition of Airy beams with successively changing transverse displacements. The dual Airy-Talbot effect is a spontaneous recurring imaging of the input and of the input with alternating component signs. It results from the constructive interference of Airy wave functions, which is also responsible for other kinds of Airy beams, for example, Airy breathers. An input composed of finite-energy Airy beams also displays the dual Airy-Talbot effect, but it d…
The Airy array beams are attractive for optical manipulation of particles owing to their non-diffraction and auto-focusing properties. An Airy array beams is composed of $N$ Airy beams which accelerate mutually and symmetrically in opposite direction, for different ballistics trajectories, that is, with different initial launch angles. Based on this, we investigate the optical force distribution acting on Rayleigh particles. Results show that is possible to obtain greater stability, for optical trapping, increasing the number of beams in the array. Also, the intensity focal point and gradient …
It is shown that the momentum density of free electromagnetic field splits into two parts. One has no contribution to the net momentum due to the transversality condition. The other yields all the momentum. The angular momentum that is associated with the former part is spin, and the angular momentum that is associated with the latter part is orbital angular momentum. Expressions for the spin and orbital angular momentum are given in terms of the electric vector in reciprocal space. The spin and orbital angular momentum defined this way are used to investigate the angular momentum of nonparaxi…
Spatial distribution of the longitudinal field component of a circularly polarized optical beam depends on the polarization handedness, which causes the lateral shift of the beam "center of gravity" when its polarization toggles. We present the generalized theory of this effect, which demonstrates its relation with the angular irradiance moments of the beam. The theory is applicable to arbitrary paraxial beams and shows that the lateral shift is the same for all cross sections of the beam.
The analytical vectorial structure of non-paraxial four-petal Gaussian beams(FPGBs) in the far field has been studied based on vector angular spectrum method and stationary phase method. In terms of analytical electromagnetic representations of the TE and TM terms, the energy flux distributions of the TE term, the TM term, and the whole beam are derived in the far field, respectively. According to our investigation, the FPGBs can evolve into a number of small petals in the far field. The number of the petals is determined by the order of input beam. The physical pictures of the FPGBs are well …
We report the first experimental generation and observation of Airy beams of free electrons. The electron Airy beams are generated by diffraction of electrons through a nanoscale hologram, that imprints a cubic phase modulation on the beams' transverse plane. We observed the spatial evolution dynamics of an arc-shaped, self accelerating and shape preserving electron Airy beams. We directly observed the ability of electrons to self-heal, restoring their original shape after passing an obstacle. This electromagnetic method opens up new avenues for steering electrons, like their photonic counterp…
Usually a light beam pushes a particle when the photons act upon it. This is due to that the electric-dipole particle in the paraxial beam is considered. We investigate the scattering forces in non-paraxial gradientless beams and find that the forces can drag certain particles towards the beam source. The major criterion to be carried out to get the attractive force is the strong non-paraxiality of the light beam. The cone angle denoting the non-paraxiality has been investigated to unveil its importance on achieving dragging force. We hope the attractive forces will be very useful in nanoparti…
We investigate controllable spatial modulation of circular autofocusing Airy beams, under action of different dynamic linear potentials, both theoretically and numerically. We introduce a novel treatment method in which the circular Airy beam is represented as a superposition of narrow azimuthally-modulated one-dimensional Airy beams that can be analytically treated. The dynamic linear potentials are appropriately designed, so that the autofocusing effect can either be weakened or even eliminated when the linear potential exerts a "pulling" effect on the beam, or if the linear potential exerts…
We consider the propagation of a tilted high order paraxial vortex-beam through a homogeneous anisotropic medium of a uniaxial crystal. We found that the initially circularly polarized beam bearing the l-order optical vortex splits into ordinary and extraordinary beams with a complex vortex structure. After a series of dislocation reactions the vortices gather together at the axis of the partial beam with the initial circular polarization shaping the l-order optical vortex. However, only l-1 vortices gather together on the axis of the partial beam with the orthogonal circular polarization. One…
The propagation characteristics of Airy beams is investigated and fully described under the traveling waves approach analogous to that used for non-diffracting Bessel beams. This is possible when noticing that Airy functions are in fact Bessel functions of fractional order 1 . We show how physical 3 principles impose restrictions such that the non-diffracting Airy beams cannot be of infinite extent as has been argued, and introduce for the first time quantitative expressions for the maximum transverse and longitudinal extent of Airy beams. We show that under the appropriate physical conditions…