Propagation of Airy-related beams generated from flat-topped Gaussian beams through a chiral slab

Abstract

We derived the analytical expression for the propagation of Airy-related beams generated from flat-topped Gaussian beams through an ABCD optical system, and use it to study the propagation of this type of beams through a chiral slab. Several influence factors, such as the optical beams order N and the chiral parameter γ of the chiral medium, on the beam propagation properties both in near- and far-zones are discussed in detail. It is shown that the Airy tails of high order beams decay more quickly than those of low order beams in the chiral medium; the constructive interference effect between the LCP (left-circularly polarized) and RCP (right-circularly polarized) beams becomes more significant as the chiral parameter γ increases; the LCP and RCP beams are not separated in the near-zone, while the two beams are obviously separated in the far-zone, and accordingly the interference peaks decrease as the propagation distance increases in the chiral slab.