The effect of the geometrical optical phase on the propagation of Hermite-Gaussian beams through transversal and parallel dielectric blocks

Abstract

When an optical beam propagates through dielectric blocks, its optical phase is responsible for the path of the beam. In particular, the first order Taylor expansion of the geometrical part reproduces the path predicted by the Snell and reflection laws whereas the first order expansion of the Fresnel phase leads to the Goos-Haenchen shift. In this paper, we analyze the effects of the second order Taylor expansion of the geometrical phase on the shape of the optical beam and show how it affects the transversal symmetry of Hermite-Gaussian beams. From the analytical expression of the transmitted beam, it is possible to determine in which transversal and parallel dielectric blocks configuration the transversal symmetry breaking is maximized or when the symmetry is recovered. We also discuss the axial spreading delay.

14 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov beam shifts: An overview
• The use of the stationary phase method as a mathematical tool to determine the path of optical beams
• Maximal breaking of symmetry at critical angle and closed form expression for angular deviations of the Snell law
• Experimental confirmation of the transversal symmetry breaking in laser profiles