Abstract

The lateral displacement of beams reflected by a dielectric interface has been measured¹ by determining the distance that the intensity peak of the beam is shifted with respect to the location predicted by geometrical optics. The measured results showed poor agreement with the theoretical values in the vicinity of the critical angle of total reflection θ_c. Recent work has revealed² that the lateral displacement is accompanied by a focal shift for incidence angles θ > θ_c and both of these phenomena are essentially replaced by an angular beam shift for θ < θ_c. However, for θ ≃ θ_c, all three shifting effects are comparable in magnitude. As a result, the peak intensity of the beam is displaced through a length that depends on all these three effects, as well as on the distance between the reflected beam waist and the measurement plane. By taking this into account and using a more accurate analysis, we show that the theoretical and measured data can be reconciled.

© 1986 Optical Society of America