What is it about?
We formulate an efficient exact method of propagating optical wave packets (and cw beams) in isotropic and nonisotropic dispersive media. The method does not make the slowly varying envelope approximation in time or space and treats dispersion and diffraction exactly to all orders, even in the near field. It can also be used to determine the partial differential wave equation for pulses (and beams) to any order as a power series in the partial derivatives with respect to time and space. The method can treat extremely focused pulses and beams, e.g., from near-field scanning optical microscopy sources whose transverse spatial extent in smaller than a wavelength.
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Why is it important?
Because of previously incomplete expansions, a particular rotation of the pulse was not realized until the late 1990s but it has been experimentally confirmed. It shows how meticulous expansions are important.
Perspectives
This work has been seminal and experimental confirmation makes the approach earn its keep. The SVEA approach has now become commonplace.
Dr Tony Cyril Scott
RWTH-Aachen University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Near-field and far-field propagation of beams and pulses in dispersive media, Optics Letters, May 1997, Optical Society of America (OSA),
DOI: 10.1364/ol.22.000579.
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