Abstract
Abstract Complex vector light fields have become a topic of late due to their exotic features, such as their non-homogeneous transverse polarisation distributions and the non-separable coupling between their spatial and polarisation degrees of freedom (DoF). In general, vector beams propagate in free space along straight lines, being the Airy-vector vortex beams the only known exception. Here, we introduce a new family of vector beams that exhibit novel properties that have not been observed before, such as their ability to freely accelerate along parabolic trajectories. In addition, their transverse polarisation distribution only contains polarisation states oriented at exactly the same angle but with different ellipticity. We anticipate that these novel vector beams might not only find applications in fields such as optical manipulation, microscopy or laser material processing but also extend to others.
Highlights
Vector beams propagate in free space along straight lines, being the Airy-vector vortex beams the only known exception
The ingrained notion that light travels along a straight line was apparently defied in 2007 by Siviloglou et al [1], who introduced a novel kind of light beam with the ability to self-accelerate along a parabolic trajectory upon free space propagation [2]
Along with the discovery of Airy beams, their fascinating properties prompted the development of novel applications, which have impacted a wide diversity of fields, such as, optical manipulation, microscopy, laser material processing, among others
Summary
The ingrained notion that light travels along a straight line was apparently defied in 2007 by Siviloglou et al [1], who introduced a novel kind of light beam with the ability to self-accelerate along a parabolic trajectory upon free space propagation [2] Such light beams, known as Airy beams, are natural solutions of the normalised paraxial wave equation (PWE). We propose and experimentally demonstrate a new family of vector beams, which we term accelerating vector waves (AVWs), that are non-separable weighted superpositions of the polarisation and spatial DoF encoded in the orthogonal set of accelerating waves These beams exhibit two interesting properties, namely, that their nonhomogeneous polarisation distributions propagate in free space along parabolic trajectories maintaining a maximum degree of coupling, and that, even though the non-homogeneous transverse polarisation distribution of an individual AVW contains different states of elliptical polarisation, all of them are located on a great circle on the Poincaré sphere representation for polarisation.
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