Incoherent self-accelerating beams

Yaakov Lumer, Yi Liang, Ran Schley, Ido Kaminer, Elad Greenfield, Daohong Song, Xinzheng Zhang, Jingjun Xu, Zhigang Chen, Mordechai Segev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Self-accelerating optical beams form as a direct outcome of interference, initiated by a predesigned initial condition. In a similar fashion, quantum mechanical particles exhibit force-free acceleration as a result of interference effects following proper preparation of the initial Schrödinger wave function. Indeed, interference is at the heart of such wave packets, and hence it is implied that self-accelerating wave packets must be coherent entities. Counter to that, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally spatially incoherent self-accelerating beams, in both the paraxial and the nonparaxial domains. We show that in principle, the transverse correlation distance can be as short as a single wavelength, while a properly designed initial beam will give rise to shape-preserving acceleration for the same distance as a coherent accelerating beam propagating on the same trajectory. These findings expand the understanding of the relation between coherence and accelerating beams, and may have implications for the design of self-accelerating quantum wave packets with limited quantum coherence.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)886-892
Number of pages7
JournalOptica
Volume2
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Oct 2015

Keywords

  • Diffraction
  • Modes
  • Propagation

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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