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. 2017 Jan 4:7:39957.
doi: 10.1038/srep39957.

Self-steering partially coherent beams

Yahong Chen  1   2 , Sergey A Ponomarenko  3 , Yangjian Cai  1   2
Affiliations

Self-steering partially coherent beams

Yahong Chen et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

We introduce a class of shape-invariant partially coherent beams with a moving guiding center which we term self-steering partially coherent beams. The guiding center of each such beam evolves along a straight line trajectory which can be engineered to make any angle with the x-axis. We show that the straight line trajectory of the guiding center is the only option in free space due to the linear momentum conservation. We experimentally generate a particular subclass of new beams, self-steering Gaussian Schell beams and argue that they can find applications for mobile target tracing and trapped micro- and/or nanoparticle transport.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Self-steering of novel beams in free-space.
(a) SSGS beam intensity distribution at several propagation distances for v0 = (−2, 4). (b) SSGS beam intensity distribution at several propagation distances for v0 = (0, 0). (c) SSGS beam intensity distribution at several propagation distances for v0 = (3, −2).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematics for generating (a) conventional Gaussian Schell-model source, and (b) self-steering Gaussian Schell source with controllable parameters u0 and v0; L1 and L2 thin lenses, rotating ground-glass disk (RGGD), Gaussian amplitude filter (GAF).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Experimental evidence of the beam guiding center evolution.
(a) SSGS beam intensity distribution at several propagation distances given the same v0 = (5, 5) and different values of the initial coherence width. (b) Same as in (a) in the focal plane with σc = 0.2 mm and different values of v0.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Guiding center position Rc as a function of the propagation distance z for three cases (σc = 1.0 mm, σc = 0.5 mm, σc = 0.2 mm) with the same v0 = (5, 5).
Figure 5
Figure 5. SSGS beam intensity distribution as the beam passes through a 2 × 2 circle hole array in three cases corresponding to different initial coherence widths.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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