Related papers: Wavefronts, light rays and caustic associated with…
One can often see caustic by reflection in nature, but it is rather hard to understand the way of how caustic arise and which geometric properties of a mirror surface define the geometry of the caustic. The caustic by reflection has…
Very little attention has been paid to the properties of optical wavefronts and caustic surfaces due to gravitational lensing. Yet the wavefront-based point of view is natural and provides insights into the nature of the caustic surfaces on…
We consider compensated spherical lens models and the caustic surfaces they create in the past light cone. Examination of cusp and crossover angles associated with particular source and lens redshifts gives explicit lensing models that…
This paper develops a rigorous mathematical framework for light propagation by constructing the optical phase space with its symplectic structure and the extended phase space with its contact structure. We prove that light rays in…
We study the formation of images in a reflective sphere in three configurations using caustics of the field of light rays. The optical wavefront emerging from a source point reaching a subject following passage through the optical system…
Designing freeform surfaces to control light based on real-world illumination patterns is challenging, as existing caustic lens designs often assume oversimplified point or parallel light sources. We propose representing surface light…
In the context of wave propagation, caustics are usually defined as the envelope of a finite-extent wavefront; folds and cusps in a caustic result in enhanced wave amplitudes. Here, we tackle a related phenomenon, namely the existence of…
Dark matter caustics have specific density profiles and, therefore, precisely calculable gravitational lensing properties. We present a formalism which simplifies the relevant calculations, and apply it to four specific cases. In the first…
Conical refraction occurs when a beam of light travels through an appropriately cut biaxial crystal. By focussing the conically refracted beam through a high numerical aperture microscope objective, conical refraction optical tweezers can…
Caustics occur in diverse physical systems, spanning the nano-scale in electron microscopy to astronomical-scale in gravitational lensing. As envelopes of rays, optical caustics result in sharp edges or extended networks. Caustics in…
Conventional caustic methods in real or Fourier space produced accelerating optical beams only with convex trajectories. We develop a superposition caustic method capable of winding light beams along non-convex trajectories. We ascertain…
We investigate the caustic structure of a lens composed by a discrete number of point-masses, having mutual distances smaller than the Einstein radius of the total mass of the system. Along with the main critical curve, it is known that the…
We experimentally address the wave-vector and polarization dependence of the internal conical refraction phenomenon by demonstrating that an input light beam of elliptical transverse profile refracts into two beams after passing along one…
Gravitational lensing magnification is maximal around caustics. At these source locations, an incoming wave from a point source would formally experience an infinite amplification in the high-frequency or geometric optics limit. This…
An analytical description of arbitrary strongly aberrated axially symmetric focusing is developed. This is done by matching the solution of geometrical optics with a wave pattern which is universal for the underlying ray structure. The…
In conical refraction (CR), a focused Gaussian input beam passing through a biaxial crystal and parallel to one of the optic axes is transformed into a pair of concentric bright rings split by a dark (Poggendorff) ring at the focal plane.…
In the diffraction pattern produced by a half-plane sharp edge when it obstructs the passage of a laser beam, two characteristic regions are noticeable. There is a central region, where it can be noticed the diffraction of laser light in…
In its broadest sense the term bent wave rays hints at light or electromagnetic waves bending in a strong gravitational field or in their progress through a transparent medium of nonuniform index of refraction. However, there are instances…
In a recent paper, Mansuripur et al. [Phys. Rev. A 84, 033813 (2011)] indicated and numerically verified the generation of the helical wavefront of optical beams using a conical-shape reflector. Because the optical reflection is largely…
In conical refraction, when a focused Gaussian beam passes along one of the optic axes of a biaxial crystal it is transformed into a pair of concentric bright rings at the focal plane. We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally…