Observation of self-accelerating Bessel-like optical beams along arbitrary trajectories

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate self-accelerating Bessel-like optical beams propagating along arbitrary trajectories in free space. With computer generated holography, such beams are designed to follow different controllable trajectories while their main lobe transverse profiles remain nearly invariant and symmetric. Examples include parabolic, snake-like, hyperbolic, hyperbolic secant, and even three-dimensional spiraling trajectories. The self-healing property of such beams is also demonstrated. This new class of optical beams can be considered as a hybrid between accelerating and non-accelerating nondiffracting beams that may find a variety of applications