We report the existence of persistently rotating azimuthons in media with self-focusing Kerr and absorption nonlinearities. The nonlinear loss is balanced by power influx from the peripheral reservoir stored in slowly decaying tails of the azimuthons. These modes are excited by a superposition of two Bessel beams with opposite vorticities, $\pm s$, and slightly different conicities. The excited azimuthon exhibits opposite vorticity in its center to that of the input Bessel-beam superposition due to spontaneous inversion of the topological charge in the course of the azimuthon formation. Unlike azimuthons in loss-free media, number $N$ of rotating intensity maxima and $s$ are not mutually independent, being related by $N=2s$. The robustness of the rotating azimuthons is enhanced in comparison to similar static dissipative patterns. They can be excited in almost any transparent material, in the range of intensities for which the nonlinear absorption, induced by multiphoton absorption, is relevant. Close to the ionization threshold, the rotating azimuthons reproduce recently observed helical filaments of light in air and CS$_{2}$.
A simple analytical way of creating superpositions of Bessel-Gaussian light beams with knotted nodal lines is proposed. It is based on the equivalence between the paraxial wave equation and the two-dimensional Schrödinger equation for a free particle. The $2D$ Schrödinger propagator is expressed in terms of Bessel functions, which allows to obtain directly superpositions of beams with a desired topology of nodal lines. Four types of knots are constructed in the explicit way: the unknot, the Hopf link, the Borromean rings and the trefoil. It is also shown, using the example of the figure-eight …
Non-separable superpositions of polarization and spatial modes in Gaussian beams have shown rich patterns of spatially-variable polarization encoded in the transverse mode of the light, with the potential for many applications. In this work we investigate encoding similar types of superpositions in Bessel beams. We find that analogously to what is observed in Poincaré-Gaussian beams, Poincaré-Bessel beams can be produced by Bessel-mode superpositions. They show polarization patterns with disclinations in the orientation of the polarization ellipse and mappings of the Poincaré sphere onto the t…
We present a unified and extended perspective of Bessel beams, irrespective to their orbital angular momentum (OAM) -- zero, integer or noninteger -- and mode -- scalar or vectorial, and LSE/LSM or TE/TM in the latter case. The unification is based on the integral superposition of constituent waves along the angular-spectrum cone of the beam, and allows to describe, compute, relate, and implement all the Bessel beams, and even other types of beams, in a universal fashion. The paper first establishes the integral superposition theory. Then, it demonstrates the previously unreported existence of…
The normalization of energy divergent Weber waves and finite energy Weber-Gauss beams is reported. The well-known Bessel and Mathieu waves are used to derive the integral relations between circular, elliptic, and parabolic waves and to present the Bessel and Mathieu wave decomposition of the Weber waves. The efficiency to approximate a Weber-Gauss beam as a finite superposition of Bessel-Gauss beams is also given.
We analyse the polarisation properties of full Poincaré beams. We consider different configurations, such as Laguerre-Poincaré, Bessel-Poincaré, and Lambert-Poincaré beams. The former is the original Poincaré beam produced by a collinear superposition of two Laguerre-Gauss beams with orthogonal polarisations. For this configuration, we describe the Stokes statistics and overall invariant parameters. Similarly, Bessel-Poincaré beams are produced by the collinear superposition of Bessel beams with orthogonal polarisations. We describe their properties under propagation and show that they behave …
In this paper, we develop a theoretical analysis to efficiently handle superpositions of waves with concentrated wavevector and frequency spectra, allowing an easy analytical description of fields with interesting transverse profiles. First, we analyze an extension of the paraxial formalism that is more suitable for superposing these types of waves, as it does not rely on the use of coordinate rotations combined with paraxial assumptions. Second, and most importantly, we leverage the obtained results to describe azimuthally symmetric waves composed of superpositions of zero-order Bessel beams …
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel experimental scheme to generate high peak power, segmented, smooth, zero-order Bessel beams with tunable range. Illuminating the axicon with hollow Gaussian beams (HGBs) of different orders we have generated Bessel beams of varying range at different positions away from the axicon. The presence of dark core at the center of the HGBs removes the effect of imperfection in the axicon tip. As a result, the entire power of the input beam is transformed into zero-order Bessel beam without any on-axis intensity modulation. We observe the decrease in r…
In this paper, an analytical theory for the diffraction of a Bessel beam of arbitrary order $J_l(κr)$ on a 2D amplitude grating is presented. The diffraction pattern in the main and fractional Talbot planes under certain conditions is a lattice of annular microbeams, the diameters of which depend on the grating period, the illuminating beam diameter, the number of the Talbot plane, and the topological charge $l$. For the rings near the optical axis, the latter reproduces $l$ of the illuminating beam. Experiments carried out on the Novosibirsk free electron laser at a wavelength $λ= 141$$μ$m us…
Nodal lines (phase singularities, optical vortices) are the generic interference fringes of complex scalar waves. Here, an exact complex solution of the time independent wave equation (Helmholtz equation) is considered, possessing nodal lines which are braided in the form of a borromean, or pig-tail braid. The braid field is a superposition of counterpropagating, counterrotating, non-coaxial third order Bessel beams, and a plane wave whose propagation is perpendicular to that of the beams. The construction is structurally stable, and can be generalized to a limited class of other braids.
Apart from a lot of fundamental interest, vector Bessel beams are widely used in optical manipulation, material processing, and imaging. However, the existing description of such beams remains fragmentary, especially when their scattering by small particles is considered. We propose a new general classification of all existing vortex Bessel beam types in an isotropic medium based on the superposition of transverse Hertz vector potentials. This theoretical framework contains duality and coordinate rotations as elementary matrix operations and naturally describes all relations between various be…
We present an integral of diffraction based on particular eigenfunctions of the Laplacian in two dimensions. We show how to propagate some fields, in particular a Bessel field, a superposition of Airy beams, both over the square root of the radial coordinate, and show how to construct a field that reproduces itself periodically in propagation, i.e., a field that renders the Talbot effect. Additionally, it is shown that the superposition of Airy beams produces self-focusing.
In this work, in terms of suitable superpositions of equal-frequency Bessel beams, we develop a theoretical method to obtain nondiffractive beams in absorbing media (weakly conductive) capable to resist the loss effects for long distances.
We present generalized expressions to calculate the orbital angular momentum for invariant beams using scalars potentials. The solutions can be separated into transversal electric TE, transversal magnetic TM and transversal electromagnetic TE/TM polarization modes. We show that the superposition of non-paraxial vectorial beams with axial symmetry can provide a well defined orbital angular momentum and that the modes superposition affects the angular momentum flux density. The results are illustrated and analyzed for Bessel beams.
Assuming a non-paraxial propagation operator, we study the propagation of an electromagnetic field with an arbitrary initial condition in a quadratic GRIN medium. We show that at certain specific periodic distances, the propagated field is given by the fractional Fourier transform of a superposition of the initial field and of a reflected version of it. We also prove that for particular wavelengths, there is a revival and a splitting of the initial field. We apply this results, first to an initial field given by a Bessel function and show that it splits into two generalized Bessel functions, a…
In this paper we present a simple and effective method, based on appropriate superpositions of Bessel-Gauss beams, which in the Fresnel regime is able to describe in analytic form the 3D evolution of important waves as Bessel beams, plane waves, gaussian beams, Bessel-Gauss beams, when truncated by finite apertures. One of the byproducts of our mathematical method is that one can get in few seconds, or minutes, high-precision results which normally require quite long times of numerical simulation. The method works in Electromagnetism (Optics, Microwaves,...), as well as in Acoustics. OCIS code…
We report on the stationary and robust propagation of light beams with rather arbitrary and controllable intensity and dissipation transverse patterns in self-focusing Kerr media with nonlinear absorption. When nonlinear absorption is due to multi-photon ionization at high beam powers in transparent media such as glasses or air, these beams can generate multiple plasma channels with tailored geometries. Their nature and spatial characteristics are discussed in detail, as well as the laws determining their spontaneous formation from coherent superpositions of Bessel beams of different amplitude…
We examine the propagation of the recently-discovered electron vortex beams in a longitudinal magnetic field. We consider both the Aharonov-Bohm configuration with a single flux line and the Landau case of a uniform magnetic field. While stationary Aharonov-Bohm modes represent Bessel beams with flux- and vortex-dependent probability distributions, stationary Landau states manifest themselves as non-diffracting Laguerre-Gaussian beams. Furthermore, the Landau-state beams possess field- and vortex-dependent phases: (i) the Zeeman phase from coupling the quantized angular momentum to the magneti…
