Radially accelerating light waves

• Applicant: Professor Alexander Szameit, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 329130931

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

In the present project, we promoted the understanding and control of radially accelerating light waves, with the vision to establish a basis for new and innovative applications. In particular, our theoretical and experimental research will addressed: • Vectorial and non-paraxial regimes of such beams • Polychromatic generalizations and their implementation • Efficient generation of such beams. The novelty of our work arises from combining insights from fundamental optical science with applicative considerations in order to explore the full potential of radially accelerating beams. To this end, we combined the experimental work with theoretical analysis, in order to explain our results thoroughly and optimize performance. In detail, our work comprises: • the first experimental demonstration of white-light radially accelerating beams • the first discussion of vector properties of radially accelerating beams • the first discussion of radially self-accelerating optical pulses • a thorough analysis of the tailoring of radially accelerating beams • the first realization of of free‐space long‐distance self‐healing Bessel beams. In conclusion, I am convinced that this project can be considered a success, as a total of 5 papers has been published in peer reviewed journals during its duration.

Publications

• Real and virtual propagation dynamics of angular accelerating white light beams. Optics Express, 25(17), 20530.
  Vetter, Christian; Dudley, Angela; Szameit, Alexander & Forbes, Andrew
  
• Vector properties of radially self-accelerating beams. Journal of Optics, 20(12), 125601.
  Ornigotti, Marco & Szameit, Alexander
  
• Radially self-accelerating optical pulses. Physical Review A, 99(2).
  Ornigotti, Marco & Szameit, Alexander
  
• Realization of Free‐Space Long‐Distance Self‐Healing Bessel Beams. Laser & Photonics Reviews, 13(10).
  Vetter, Christian; Steinkopf, Ralf; Bergner, Klaus; Ornigotti, Marco; Nolte, Stefan; Gross, Herbert & Szameit, Alexander
  
• Tailored radially self-accelerating beams. Journal of Optics, 22(7), 075605.
  Vetter, Christian; Forbes, Andrew & Szameit, Alexander