Beam nonparaxiality, filament formation, and beam breakup in the self-focusing of optical beams

Journal Article · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1988 · J. Opt. Soc. Am. B: Opt. Phys.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.5.000633· OSTI ID:5154640

Feit, M D; Fleck, Jr, J A

The paraxial wave equation, as is well known, predicts the catastrophic collapse of self-focusing beams. It is pointed out that this collapse is due to the loss of validity of the paraxial wave equation in the neighborhood of a self-focus. If nonparaxiality of the beam propagation is taken into account, on the other hand, a lower limit of the order of one optical wavelength is imposed on the diameter of a self-focus. A nonparaxial algorithm for the Helmholtz equation is applied to the self-focusing of Gaussian and ring-shaped beams. The self-focusing is noncatastrophic, and the results give insight into filament formation and beam breakup resulting from the self-focusing of optical beams.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5154640
• Journal Information: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B: Opt. Phys.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B: Opt. Phys.; (United States) Vol. 5:3; ISSN JOBPD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

657000* -- Theoretical & Mathematical Physics
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BEAM OPTICS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EQUATIONS
FOCUSING
MATHEMATICS
NONLINEAR OPTICS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
OPTICS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
RADIATIONS
VISIBLE RADIATION
WAVE EQUATIONS