Airy光束在Kerr介质中的传输特性

通过对非线性薛定谔方程的研究,得出Airy光束在Kerr介质中的崩塌功率及有效束宽演化的解析表达式。经过数值计算发现,Airy光束在聚焦的Kerr介质中,其主瓣在开始传播时始终是会聚的;当输入功率小于临界崩塌功率时,Airy光束主瓣的中心部分出现局部崩塌。在不同的Kerr介质中, Airy光束的形状和传输轨道均能保持不变,如同在自由空间中传播,但光场大小的分布,随着不同的Kerr介质会发生改变:在Kerr的聚焦介质中,光场向中心聚焦;而在散焦的Kerr介质中,光场会发散。     

Dressed Airy Vortex Beam in a Hot Atomic Medium

Introducing vortices into an Airy beam by the interference between the lobes of the Airy beam for the first time, the modulation of Airy vortices is experimentally and theoretically investigated by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect and changing the number of side lobes of the Airy beam. The formation and disappearance of vortices in Airy beams can be caused by changing the number of side lobes. The EIT effect can induce the movement of vortex phase singularity by regulating the intensities of lobes in Airy beams. However, changing the number of side lobes can change the energy distribution of the lobes through the energy flow due to the self-healing of Airy beams, thus causing the displacement of vortex phase singularity. In addition, the simulation of the Poynting vector shows that the less the side lobes are blocked, the more energy can be retained in the main lobe and the unblocked side lobes, so that the overall shape of the Airy beam can be better maintained. Such studies provide a new method to acquire and adjust Airy vortex beams and can be applied in the realm of optical micromanipulation.     

Evolution of self-healing characteristic on optical Airy beam

We investigate and analyze the evolution of self-healing characteristic on diffraction-free Airy beams. We also show that different internal structure of Airy beams contribute to self-healing by breaking the integrity of Airy beams. A numerical simulation is performed and demonstrate that each independent structure undertakes different roles. It is believed that the intriguing characteristic of Airy beams can be applied in many fields such as optical tweezers, atom trapping and manipulating.     

Propagation dynamics of finite-energy Airy beams in nonlocal nonlinear media

We investigate periodic inversion and phase transition of normal and displaced finite-energy Airy beams propagating in nonlocal nonlinear media with the split-step Fourier method. Numerical simulation results show that parameters such as the degree of nonlocality and amplitude have profound effects on the intensity distribution of the period of an Airy beam. Nonlocal nonlinear media will reduce into a harmonic potential if the nonlocality is strong enough, which results in the beam fluctuating in an approximately cosine mode. The beam profile changes from an Airy profile to a Gaussian one at a critical point, and during propagation the process repeats to form an unusual oscillation. We also briefly discus the two-dimensional case, being equivalent to a product of two one-dimensional cases.     

克尔介质中艾里孤子的形成及控制

利用分步傅里叶法,数值研究了艾里光束在自聚焦克尔非线性介质中的传输。结果表明,当较强的非线性作用于艾里光束时,主瓣能量在传输过程中会发生脱落形成具有周期振荡的空间孤子。随着非线性的增强,该孤子的振荡周期与半高宽都减小。调节艾里光束的入射角度时,脱落孤子的传输轨迹随之发生变化,不同于艾里光束的是,艾里孤子的传输始终保持直线传输。     

The optical Airy transform and its application in generating and controlling the Airy beam

We propose an optical Airy transform in this paper, and obtain the analytical expressions for the Airy transform of fundamental Gaussian beams and finite energy Airy beams. The setup for performing the optical Airy transform is presented. The Airy transform for Gaussian beams and finite energy Airy beams are theoretically calculated and analyzed. Our results show that the Airy beam can be conveniently generated and controlled through the optical Airy transform of the Gaussian beam. The optical Airy transform also can be used to directly modulate the beam parameters of the incident Airy beam, and it can transform the incident Airy beam into the Gaussian beam.     

用傅里叶分析法研究艾里光束远场传播特性

为了从理论上深入分析新型无衍射光束艾里光束在有限能量条件下的远场传播特性,首先,从决定光波在自由空间传播的一维旁轴波动方程入手,采用傅里叶分析法,结合艾里函数的特殊性质,并利用经过指数衰减的有限能量初始条件,完整给出了有限能量条件下用于精确描述一维艾里光束在自由空间传播特性的波动方程解析解.然后,利用所得到解析解分别对一维和二维艾里光束在自由空间的传播特性进行了研究,重点分析了不同参量条件对艾里光束进行无衍射传播和横向自加速的影响.研究表明:当任意横向尺度为100μm,衰减系数为0.03、0.05、0.07、0.1、0.2时,二维艾里光束无衍射传播距离分别为1 014、624、455、338、193mm;当横向尺度保持不变时,衰减系数越小,艾里光束保持无衍射传播的距离越大;当衰减系数保持不变时,横向尺度越小,艾里光束横向自加速越大.所采用的研究方法也可用于研究艾里光束在介质中的传播特性.     

Airy trajectory engineering in dynamic linear index potentials

We study the propagation of Airy beams in transversely linear index potentials with a gradient that is dynamically changing along the propagation direction. We find exact solutions in the case of Airy and apodized (Gaussian and exponentially) Airy beams in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions. More important, we find that the Airy beam can follow any predefined path, in which case the potential gradient is determined as a function of this path.     

Persistence and breakdown of Airy beams driven by an initial nonlinearity

We study the behavior of Airy beams propagating from a nonlinear medium to a linear medium. We show that an Airy beam initially driven by a self-defocusing nonlinearity experiences anomalous diffraction and can maintain its shape in subsequent propagation, but its intensity pattern and acceleration cannot persist when driven by a self-focusing nonlinearity. The unusual behavior of Airy beams is examined from their energy flow as well as the Brillouin zone spectrum of self-induced chirped photonic lattices.     

Canonical momentum,angular momentum,and helicity of circularly polarized Airy beams

We report a study of the momentum, angular momentum, and helicity of circularly polarized Airy beams propagating in free space. By using the vector angular spectrum representation, the explicit analytical expressions for the electric and magnetic field components of circularly polarized Airy beams are derived in detail. To overcome the drawbacks of classical kinematics formulae when applied to structured light beams, a general canonical approach is introduced to describe the momentum, angular momentum and helicity of Airy beams. Numerical simulation results for the spatial distributions of the canonical momentum, spin and orbital angular momentum, as well as the helicity densities are presented and discussed. This study may provide useful insights into the dynamical properties of Airy beams that may be important in several applications, including the optical control, micromanipulation, and information processing.     

Trapping and guiding microparticles with morphing autofocusing Airy beams

We observe optical trapping and manipulation of dielectric microparticles using autofocusing radially symmetric Airy beams. This is accomplished by exploiting either the inward or outward transverse acceleration associated with their chirped wavefronts. We experimentally demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, that such Airy beams morph into nondiffracting Bessel beams in their far-field. Furthermore, the ability of guiding and transporting microparticles along the primary rings of this class of beams is explored.     

Relation between Airy beams and triple-cusp beams

Airy beams and triple-cusp beams are two kinds of accelerating beams. The propagation characteristics and internal topological structures of accelerating Airy beams are well understood because of the developed mathematical theory about Airy function. However, limited information is available about the optical characteristics of accelerating triple-cusp beams. In this work, the relationship between Airy beams and triple-cusp beams is examined theoretically and experimentally. Results reveal some important optical characteristics of triple-cusp beams based on the optical characteristics of Airy beams. These findings are expected to provide a foundation for future applications of triple-cusp beams.     

Specular and vortical Airy beams

A new kind of truncated Airy beams is investigated and discussed. These beams are a superposition of shifted and truncated Airy functions and its specular counterparts, where zeroes or extremal points of the Airy function are chosen as a truncation point. The specular Airy beams are smooth at the truncation point and produce a diffraction pattern similar to Hermite-Gaussian modes. Under propagation in Fresnel zone, specular Airy beams demonstrate a symmetrical acceleration in opposite sides and the beam divergence is proportional to the traveled distance squared. The astigmatic mode converter transforms a two-dimensional specular Airy beam into a quasi-annular field with a nonzero orbital angular momentum. Vortical Airy beams based on truncated Airy functions are also discussed. These beams are similar to Laguerre-Gaussian modes, while their annular structure is changed during propagation.     

Accelerating parabolic beams

We demonstrate the existence of accelerating parabolic beams that constitute, together with the Airy beams, the only orthogonal and complete families of solutions of the two-dimensional paraxial wave equation that exhibit the unusual ability to remain diffraction-free and freely accelerate during propagation. Since the accelerating parabolic beams, like the Airy beams, carry infinite energy, we present exact finite-energy accelerating parabolic beams that still retain their unusual features over several diffraction lengths.     

Intense femtosecond shaped laser beams for writing extended structures inside transparent dielectrics

We review recent results on the propagation and self-focusing of intense femtosecond laser pulses with shaped beam profiles in transparent dielectric media. At sufficiently high optical power, beam shaping seeds into the transverse modulation instability and results in the deterministic placement of intense laser filaments within the beam profile. Resulting spatial filament distributions may be utilized for writing complex extended structures inside transparent dielectrics. Specific examples of beam shapes we will discuss are Bessel beams, optical vortices, Bessel beams of higher order, and Airy beams.     

Automatic Fourier transform and self-Fourier beams due to parabolic potential

We investigate the propagation of light beams including Hermite–Gauss, Bessel–Gauss and finite energy Airy beams in a linear medium with parabolic potential. Expectedly, the beams undergo oscillation during propagation, but quite unexpectedly they also perform automatic Fourier transform, that is, periodic change from the beam to its Fourier transform and back. In addition to oscillation, the finite-energy Airy beams exhibit periodic inversion during propagation. The oscillating period of parity-asymmetric beams is twice that of the parity-symmetric beams. Based on the propagation in parabolic potential, we introduce a class of optically-interesting beams that are self-Fourier beams—that is, the beams whose Fourier transforms are the beams themselves.     

Plasmonic Airy beam manipulation in linear optical potentials

We demonstrate, both theoretically and numerically, the efficient manipulation of plasmonic Airy beams in linear optical potentials produced by a wedged metal-dielectric-metal structure. By varying the angle between the metallic plates, we can accelerate, compensate, or reverse the self-deflection of the plasmonic Airy beams without compromising the self-healing properties. We also show that in the linear potentials the Airy plasmons of different wavelengths could be routed into different directions, creating new opportunities for optical steering and manipulation.     

Acceleration control of Airy beams with optically induced refractive-index gradient

We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically controlled acceleration of one- and two-dimensional Airy beams in optically induced refractive-index potentials. Enhancement as well as reduction of beam acceleration are realized by changing the index gradient, while the beam shape is maintained during propagation through the linear optical potential. Our results of active acceleration manipulation in graded media are pertinent to Airy-type beam propagation in various environments.     

Plasmonic Airy beams with dynamically controlled trajectories

We report the experimental generation and dynamic trajectory control of plasmonic Airy beams (PABs). The PABs are created by directly coupling free-space Airy beams to surface plasmon polaritons through a grating coupler on a metal surface. We show that the ballistic motion of the PABs can be reconfigured in real time by either a computer addressed spatial light modulator or mechanical means.     

Ballistic dynamics of Airy beams

We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that optical Airy beams propagating in free space can perform ballistic dynamics akin to those of projectiles moving under the action of gravity. The parabolic trajectories of these beams as well as the motion of their center of gravity were observed in good agreement with theory. The possibility of circumventing an obstacle placed in the path of the Airy beam is discussed.