Title :
Superoscillatory diffraction-free beams
Author :
Makris, K.G. ; Psaltis, D.
Author_Institution :
Inst. for Theor. Phys., Vienna Univ. of Technol., Vienna, Austria
Abstract :
It is widely known that any beam with subwavelength characteristics will diffract very fast and these features will not propagate into the far field. This is due to the existence of evanescent waves, which diffract in the near field. By using the counter-intuitive effect of superoscillations we show that it is possible to create a superoscillatory diffraction free beam by superimposing already known diffraction-free solutions (Bessel beams for example) of Helmholtz equation. Such optical beams do not contain any evanescent waves and can propagate practically undistorted carrying these subwavelength features into the far field. Superoscillations have been recently studied and introduced to optics in the context of superresolution, and subwavelength focusing.
Keywords :
Bessel functions; Helmholtz equations; laser beams; optical self-focusing; Bessel beams; Helmholtz equation; counter-intuitive effect; evanescent waves; optical beams; subwavelength characteristics; subwavelength focusing; superoscillatory diffraction-free beams; superresolution;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC), 2011 Conference on and 12th European Quantum Electronics Conference
Conference_Location :
Munich
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0533-5
Electronic_ISBN :
Pending
DOI :
10.1109/CLEOE.2011.5943277