Nonsymmetric curved beams within a symmetric caustic skeleton

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Wave Phenomena

Background:

• Curved beams are essential in various optical applications.
• Controlling beam symmetry is crucial for advanced optical functionalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present nonsymmetric curved beams with a symmetric caustic skeleton.
• To demonstrate a method for controlling beam asymmetry via spectral phase jumps.

Main Methods:

• Generating nonsymmetric beams through a finite jump in symmetric spectral phase.
• Representing these beams as a superposition of two caustic beams with even and odd symmetries.
• Utilizing weight coefficients dependent on the phase jump to control asymmetry.

Main Results:

• Nonsymmetric beams were successfully created, maintaining a symmetric caustic curve.
• Beam intensity symmetry was broken by the spectral phase jump.
• The degree of beam asymmetry was shown to be controllable via the phase jump magnitude.

Conclusions:

• The presented method provides a novel way to generate and control nonsymmetric curved beams.
• This technique offers a promising foundation for applications in optical cryptography and quantum optics.
• The spectral phase jump serves as a tunable parameter for beam asymmetry.