Related papers: Gaussian beams diffracting in time
The Sagnac time delay and the corresponding Sagnac phase shift, for relativistic matter and electromagnetic beams counter-propagating in a rotating interferometer, are deduced on the ground of relativistic kinematics. This purely…
The time evolution of a Gaussian density matrix of a one dimensional particle, generated by a quadratic, ${\cal O}(\partial_t^2)$ effective Lagrangian, describing a harmonic potential, a friction force and decoherence, is studied within the…
We study the paraxial wave equation with a randomly perturbed index of refraction, which can model the propagation of a wave beam in a turbulent medium. The random perturbation is a stationary and isotropic process with a general form of…
All prior applications of Diffusing-Wave Spectroscopy (DWS) to aqueous foams rely upon the assumption that the electric field of the detected light is a Gaussian random variable and that, hence, the Siegert relation applies. Here we test…
An exact formulation of the propagation of a monochromatic wave packet impinging upon a transparent, homogeneous, isotropic and parallel slab at oblique incidence is presented. Approximate formulas are derived for low divergence Gaussian…
Band-limited functions can oscillate locally at an arbitrarily fast rate through an interference phenomenon known as superoscillations. Using an optical pulse with a superoscillatory envelope we experimentally break the temporal…
Spatial distribution of the longitudinal field component of a circularly polarized optical beam depends on the polarization handedness, which causes the lateral shift of the beam "center of gravity" when its polarization toggles. We present…
We investigate propagation of light pulses in photonic crystals in the vicinity of the zero-diffraction point. We show that Gaussian pulses due to nonzero width of their spectrum spread weakly in space and time during the propagation. We…
We investigate the problem of shaping radially symmetric annular beams into desired intensity patterns along the optical axis. Within the Fresnel approximation, we show that this problem can be expressed in a variational form equivalent to…
We give an infinite class of exact analytical solutions for monochromatic light beams with strong focusing. As the solutions do not contain integrals, they are easy to explore compared with diffraction-theory results for strongly focused…
We study monochromatic, scalar solutions of the Helmholtz and paraxial wave equations from a field-theoretic point of view. We introduce appropriate time-independent Lagrangian densities for which the Euler-Lagrange equations reproduces…
A pulse of matter waves may dramatically change its shape when traversing an absorbing barrier with time-dependent transparency. Here we show that this effect can be utilized for controlled manipulation of spatially-localized quantum…
Negative refraction is a peculiar wave propagation phenomenon that occurs when a wave crosses a boundary between a regular medium and a medium with both constitutive parameters negative at the given frequency. The phase and group velocities…
A freely propagating optical field having a periodic transverse spatial profile undergoes periodic axial revivals - a well-known phenomenon known as the Talbot effect or self-imaging. We show here that introducing tight spatio-temporal…
Using an analytical expression for an integral involving Bessel and Legendre functions we succeeded to obtain the partial wave decomposition of a general optical beam at an arbitrary location from the origin. We also showed that the solid…
We develop the paraxial approximation for electromagnetic fields in arbitrary isotropy-broken media in terms of the ray-wave tilt and the curvature of materials Fresnel wave surfaces. We obtain solutions of the paraxial equation in the form…
In the same manner that free-space propagation and curved glass lenses are used to shape the spatial properties of light, a combination of chromatic dispersion and devices known as time lenses may be used to reshape its temporal properties.…
We investigate a simple forced harmonic oscillator with a natural frequency varying with time. It is shown that the time evolution of such a system can be written in a simplified form with Fresnel integrals, as long as the variation of the…
We derive time reflection and transmission coefficients for 1D acoustic waves encountering a time boundary at which the properties of the medium change instantaneously. The time reflection and transmission coefficients are shown to be…
The dynamics of quantum systems can be approximated by the time propagation of Gaussian wave packets. Applying a time dependent variational principle, the time evolution of the parameters of the coupled Gaussian wave packets can be…