Paraxial beam propagation from Airy-type initial conditions via the Operator Method

TL;DR

This paper uses quantum mechanical operator techniques to derive and analyze paraxial Airy-type beam propagation in 1D and 2D, providing a new elegant framework validated by theoretical and experimental results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel operator method approach to derive solutions for Airy-type beam propagation, complementing traditional diffraction integral methods.

Findings

Excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental intensity profiles.

The operator method effectively describes multidimensional Airy beam propagation.

The approach offers an elegant alternative framework for analyzing paraxial waves.

Abstract

We employ quantum mechanical operator techniques to solve the equations of $(1+1)D$ and $(2+1)D$ for paraxial waves with initial conditions defined by Airy-type functions. In the first part, we find the expressions of $(1+1)D$ optical beams, considering initial conditions such as Airy, Airy-truncated, and Airy-Gaussian functions. Subsequently, we extended the analysis to $(2+1)D$ optical beams with initial conditions generated by the product of two Airy, two Airy-truncated and two Airy-Gaussian functions, providing a comprehensive study of multidimensional Airy beam propagation. To validate our theoretical derivations, we present both theoretical and experimental intensity profiles, showing excellent agreement between the two, illustrating the physical characteristics of these beams. Although these solutions have previously been obtained via the diffraction integral and thoroughly studied, the primary goal here is to demonstrate that the optical fields can be derived using quantum mechanical operator methods. Finally, we remark that this alternative approach offers an elegant and powerful framework for analyzing paraxial wave propagation.