Propagating light beams with widths down to and below the optical wavelength require bulky large-aperture lenses and remain focused only for micrometric distances. Here, we report the observation of light beams that violate this localization/depth-of-focus law by shrinking as they propagate, allowing resolution to be maintained and increased over macroscopic propagation lengths. In nanodisordered ferroelectrics we observe a non-paraxial propagation of a sub-micrometre-sized beam for over 1,000 diffraction lengths, the narrowest visible beam reported to date. This unprecedented effect is caused by the nonlinear response of a dipolar glass, which transforms the leading optical wave equation into a Klein–Gordon-type equation that describes a massive particle field9. Our findings open the way to high-resolution optics over large depths of focus, and a route to merging bulk optics into nanodevices.
%0 Journal Article
%1 nphoton2015
%A DelRe, Eugenio
%A Di Mei, Fabrizio
%A Parravicini, Jacopo
%A Parravicini, Gianbattista
%A Agranat, Aharon J
%A Conti, Claudio
%D 2015
%I Nature Publishing Group
%J Nat Photon
%K imported mywon
%P 228--232
%R http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.21 10.1038/nphoton.2015.21
%T Subwavelength anti-diffracting beams propagating over more than 1,000 Rayleigh lengths
%U http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v9/n4/full/nphoton.2015.21.html
%V 9
%X Propagating light beams with widths down to and below the optical wavelength require bulky large-aperture lenses and remain focused only for micrometric distances. Here, we report the observation of light beams that violate this localization/depth-of-focus law by shrinking as they propagate, allowing resolution to be maintained and increased over macroscopic propagation lengths. In nanodisordered ferroelectrics we observe a non-paraxial propagation of a sub-micrometre-sized beam for over 1,000 diffraction lengths, the narrowest visible beam reported to date. This unprecedented effect is caused by the nonlinear response of a dipolar glass, which transforms the leading optical wave equation into a Klein–Gordon-type equation that describes a massive particle field9. Our findings open the way to high-resolution optics over large depths of focus, and a route to merging bulk optics into nanodevices.
@article{nphoton2015,
abstract = {Propagating light beams with widths down to and below the optical wavelength require bulky large-aperture lenses and remain focused only for micrometric distances. Here, we report the observation of light beams that violate this localization/depth-of-focus law by shrinking as they propagate, allowing resolution to be maintained and increased over macroscopic propagation lengths. In nanodisordered ferroelectrics we observe a non-paraxial propagation of a sub-micrometre-sized beam for over 1,000 diffraction lengths, the narrowest visible beam reported to date. This unprecedented effect is caused by the nonlinear response of a dipolar glass, which transforms the leading optical wave equation into a Klein–Gordon-type equation that describes a massive particle field9. Our findings open the way to high-resolution optics over large depths of focus, and a route to merging bulk optics into nanodevices.},
added-at = {2016-08-08T09:50:00.000+0200},
author = {DelRe, Eugenio and Di Mei, Fabrizio and Parravicini, Jacopo and Parravicini, Gianbattista and Agranat, Aharon J and Conti, Claudio},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/297206584eadeadb8cff14621591d87de/nonlinearxwaves},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.21 10.1038/nphoton.2015.21},
interhash = {f4e473f534898fd3db575dea18c13bb2},
intrahash = {97206584eadeadb8cff14621591d87de},
issn = {1749-4893},
journal = {Nat Photon},
keywords = {imported mywon},
month = mar,
pages = {228--232},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
risfield_0_m3 = {Letter},
timestamp = {2016-08-11T10:33:54.000+0200},
title = {Subwavelength anti-diffracting beams propagating over more than 1,000 Rayleigh lengths},
url = {http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v9/n4/full/nphoton.2015.21.html},
volume = 9,
year = 2015
}