Abstract

Airy beams are a solution to the paraxial wave equation with nondiffracting properties [1]. These beams were only recently experimentally observed by Siviloglou et al [2]. Airy beams generate a growing interest since they remain focused during the propagation, exhibit properties of self-healing and their trajectory is parabolic along the propagation axis. At present, applications of Airy beams are dedicated to trapping and filamentation. For applications to extreme nonlinear optics and material structuring, nondiffracting beams have key benefits over gaussian beams [3].

© 2011 Optical Society of America