Abstract

All known realizations of optical wave packets that accelerate along their propagation axis, such as Airy wave packets in dispersive media or wave-front-modulated X-waves, exhibit a constant acceleration; that is, the group velocity varies linearly with propagation. Here we synthesize space-time wave packets that travel in free space with arbitrary axial acceleration profiles, including group velocities that change with integer or fractional exponents of the distance. Furthermore, we realize a composite acceleration profile: the wave packet accelerates from an initial to a terminal group velocity, before decelerating back to the initial value. These never-before-seen optical-acceleration phenomena are produced using the same experimental arrangement that precisely sculpts the wave packet’s spatio-temporal spectral structure.

© 2022 Optical Society of America

Refraction of space–time wave packets in a dispersive medium

Murat Yessenov, Sanaz Faryadras, Sepehr Benis, David J. Hagan, Eric W. Van Stryland, and Ayman F. Abouraddy
Opt. Lett. 47(7) 1630-1633 (2022)

Space-time wave packets

Murat Yessenov, Layton A. Hall, Kenneth L. Schepler, and Ayman F. Abouraddy
Adv. Opt. Photon. 14(3) 455-570 (2022)

Isochronous space–time wave packets

Alyssa M. Allende Motz, Murat Yessenov, and Ayman F. Abouraddy
Opt. Lett. 46(10) 2260-2263 (2021)

Vector space-time wave packets

Murat Yessenov, Zhaozhong Chen, Martin P. J. Lavery, and Ayman F. Abouraddy
Opt. Lett. 47(16) 4131-4134 (2022)

Omni-resonant space–time wave packets

Abbas Shiri, Murat Yessenov, Rohinraj Aravindakshan, and Ayman F. Abouraddy
Opt. Lett. 45(7) 1774-1777 (2020)