Modelling Airy beams propagation with lens design software

Abstract

Airy beams are a new class of nondiffracting beams predicted in 1979 and observed in 2007. In this paper, we show that beam propagation methods are an effective way to study the behavior of those beams in propagation and to design such beams. A lens design software integrated beam propagation feature is implemented to design an Airy beam generation setup based on Fourier transform in a coherent optical system. The setup was reproduced in the lab for experimental validation using a "cubic-shaped" mirror. The resulting monochromatic Airy beam presents a main lobe FWHM of approximately 30 μm over a diffraction-free distance of 15 mm. Computational results show excellent agreement with experimental data as well as with analytical predictions expressed in terms of the optical setup geometrical parameters.