Caustics, catastrophes, and symmetries in curved beams

PABLO VAVELIUK; ALBERTO LENCINA; JOSE A. RODRIGO; OSCAR MARTINEZ MATOS

PHYSICAL REVIEW A - ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015 vol. 92 p. 33850 - 33850

1050-2947

In this paper, a meaningful classification of optical caustic beams in two dimensions is presented. It is demonstrated that the phase symmetry of the beam?s angular spectrum governs the optical catastrophe, whichdescribes the wave properties of ray singularities, for cusp (symmetric phase) and fold (antisymmetric phase) caustics. In contrast to the established idea, the caustic classification arises from the phase symmetry rather than from the phase power, thus breaking the commonly accepted concept that fold and cusp caustics are related to the Airy and Pearcey functions, respectively. Nevertheless, the role played by the spectral phase power is to control the degree of caustic curvature. These findings provide straightforward engineering of caustic beams by addressing the spectral phase into a spatial light modulator or glass plate.