A modal description of paraxial structured light propagation

Abstract

Here we outline a description of paraxial light propagation from a modal perspective. By decomposing the initial transverse field into a spatial basis whose elements have known and analytical propagation characteristics, we are able to analytically propagate any desired field, making the calculation fast and easy. By selecting a basis other than that of planes waves, we overcome the problem of numerical artefacts in the angular spectrum approach and at the same time are able to offer an intuitive understanding for why certain classes of fields propagate as they do. We outline the concept theoretically, compare it to the numerical angular spectrum approach, and confirm its veracity experimentally using a range of instructive examples. We believe that this modal approach to propagating light will be a useful addition to toolbox for propagating optical fields.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference
• Transfer and evolution of structured polarization in a double-V atomic system
• Tailoring light to create invariant modal spectra through complex channels
• Combined tools for Particle-In-Cell simulations performed with transversely asymmetric chirped lasers