Controllable circular Airy beams via dynamic linear potential

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to control the autofocusing behavior of circular Airy beams using dynamic linear potentials, enabling suppression or enhancement of autofocusing through analytical and numerical approaches.

Contribution

A novel analytical treatment of circular Airy beams as superpositions of azimuthally-modulated 1D Airy beams and a design strategy for dynamic linear potentials to control autofocusing.

Findings

Linear potentials can suppress autofocusing effects.

Linear potentials can enhance autofocusing effects.

Numerical results agree with theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We investigate controllable spatial modulation of circular autofocusing Airy beams, under action of different dynamic linear potentials, both theoretically and numerically. We introduce a novel treatment method in which the circular Airy beam is represented as a superposition of narrow azimuthally-modulated one-dimensional Airy beams that can be analytically treated. The dynamic linear potentials are appropriately designed, so that the autofocusing effect can either be weakened or even eliminated when the linear potential exerts a "pulling" effect on the beam, or if the linear potential exerts a "pushing" effect, the autofocusing effect can be greatly strengthened. Numerical simulations agree with the theoretical results very well.