A Schrödinger formulation research for light beam propagation through the media of complex refractive index

Abstract

The Helmhotz equation of light beam propagating through a medium of complex refractive index is reduced to the axial-coordinate-dependent Schrodinger equation of complex potential. The new bra vector, the new expectation value of a dynamical variable and the extended Heisenberg picture are defined by the inverse of the evolution operator instead of its Hermitian adjoint, and the complex beam propagation parameters defined in terms of the new expectation value, the complex ABCD law and the ABCD formulation of the Huygens’ integral are discussed in terms of quantum mechanics. It is shown that the evolution equations of the complex beam propagation parameters are the same as those of the beam propagation parameters of beam propagating through a medium of real refractive index. The research on an optical system of the conservative complex beam quality factor shows that the complex ABCD law holds, the evolution of its coordinate operator and the momentum operator is linear, and the Huygens’ integral is of the ABCD formulation.