Dual accelerating Airy-Talbot recurrence effect

TL;DR

This paper introduces the dual accelerating Airy-Talbot recurrence effect, demonstrating self-imaging of accelerating optical beams through superpositions of Airy beams with changing displacements, revealing a spontaneous recurring imaging phenomenon.

Contribution

It presents the novel dual Airy-Talbot effect, showing how superpositions of Airy beams produce self-imaging and recurrence phenomena in optical beam propagation.

Findings

Dual Airy-Talbot effect observed in superpositions of Airy beams.

Effect persists with finite-energy Airy beams but diminishes quickly.

Constructive interference of Airy wave functions causes the recurrence.

Abstract

We demonstrate the dual accelerating Airy-Talbot recurrence effect, i.e., the self-imaging of accelerating optical beams, by propagating a superposition of Airy beams with successively changing transverse displacements. The dual Airy-Talbot effect is a spontaneous recurring imaging of the input and of the input with alternating component signs. It results from the constructive interference of Airy wave functions, which is also responsible for other kinds of Airy beams, for example, Airy breathers. An input composed of finite-energy Airy beams also displays the dual Airy-Talbot effect, but it demands a large transverse displacement and diminishes fast along the propagation direction.