Airy beams on incoherent background

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of diffraction-free Airy beams on incoherent backgrounds, analyzing their propagation and potential applications in imaging and communications through random media.

Contribution

It presents a novel class of partially coherent Airy beams with finite power on Gaussian backgrounds and studies their propagation characteristics.

Findings

Propagation governed by coherence width and aperture size

Beams maintain shape over certain distances depending on parameters

Potential for improved imaging and communication in random media

Abstract

We present a class of diffraction-free partially coherent beams each member of which is comprised of a finite power, non-accelerating Airy bump residing on a statistically homogeneous, Gaussian-correlated background. We examine free-space propagation of soft apertured realizations of the proposed beams and show that their evolution is governed by two spatial scales: the coherence width of the background and aperture size. A relative magnitude of these factors determines the practical range of propagation distances over which the novel beams can withstand diffraction. The proposed beams can find applications to imaging and optical communications through random media.