A Guided Tour of Light Beams: From lasers to optical knots

Description

This book provides an introductory overview of a variety of novel light beams, covering their basic physics and optics, and discussing new cutting-edge applications to which they give rise in science, technology, and medicine. Following a short introduction, topics include optical propagation, Gaussian beams and lasers, orbital angular momentum and Laguerre-Gauss beams, Bessel and Airy beams, as well as other types of optical beams. Later chapters focus on entangled and pin-like beams and beam propagation through turbulence, before concluding with a discussion of the new frontiers in the field. It is an ideal guide for undergraduate students, beginning graduate students, or researchers who are not experts in this field. Key Features Covers a broad range of exotic optical beams and their applicationsMany have never been covered in detail outside the original research literatureApplications range from nanotechnology to medical diagnosticsWritten at an advanced undergraduate level but covering a number of cutting-edge research topicsOf interest to a broad range of readers in areas such as physics, optics, engineering, and biomedical research PRELIMS.pdf Preface Acknowledgments Author biography David S Simon CH001.pdf Chapter 1 Introduction: from death rays to smartphones References CH002.pdf Chapter 2 Optical propagation 2.1 Electromagnetic fields 2.2 Helmholtz equation and wave optics 2.3 Looking forward References CH003.pdf Chapter 3 Gaussian beams and lasers 3.1 Lasers 3.2 Gaussian beams 3.3 Coherent and squeezed states 3.4 Optical tweezers References CH004.pdf Chapter 4 Orbital angular momentum and Laguerre–Gauss beams 4.1 Polarization and angular momentum in optics 4.2 Generation and detection of Laguerre–Gauss beams 4.3 Optical spanners and micropumps 4.4 Harnessing OAM for measurement 4.5 Vortex beams on a chip References CH005.pdf Chapter 5 Bessel beams, self-healing, and diffraction-free propagation 5.1 Bessel beams 5.2 Optical petal structures 5.3 Dark hollow beams 5.4 More nondiffracting beams: Mathieu beams 5.5 Optical tractor beams, conveyor belts, and solenoidal beams 5.6 Optical bottles 5.7 Trojan states 5.8 Localized waves References CH006.pdf Chapter 6 Airy beams and self-acceleration 6.1 Airy beams 6.2 Self-accelerating beams and optical boomerangs 6.3 Arbitrary trajectories 6.4 Applications References CH007.pdf Chapter 7 Further variations 7.1 Separable solutions 7.2 Hermite–Gauss beams 7.3 Ince–Gauss beams 7.4 Parabolic beams 7.5 Elegant beams 7.6 Lorentz beams References CH008.pdf Chapter 8 Entangled beams 8.1 Separability and entanglement 8.2 Creating entanglement 8.3 Applications: coincidence counting and quantum cryptography 8.4 Applications: aberration and dispersion cancelation, and turbulence mitigation References CH009.pdf Chapter 9 Pin-like beams and turbulence 9.1 Turbulence 9.2 Pin-like beams References CH010.pdf Chapter 10 New frontiers 10.1 From knotted vortex atoms to knotted light 10.2 Knotted vortex lines 10.3 Optical bound states in the continuum References CH011.pdf Chapter 11 Conclusion References APP1.pdf Chapter A.1 Gaussians A.2 Laguerre polynomials A.3 Bessel functions A.4 Hermite polynomials References