Tailoring nondiffracting fields with a non-Markovian phase imprint

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Quantum Optics
• Statistical Physics

Background:

• Nondiffracting optical fields, such as Bessel beams, are crucial for applications requiring stable intensity profiles over distance.
• Non-Markovian processes describe systems where future states depend on the entire history, not just the present state, a concept increasingly explored in optics.
• Speckle fields, arising from coherent light scattering, typically exhibit Markovian behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally generate nondiffracting speckles that exhibit non-Markovian properties.
• To analyze the characteristics of these non-Markovian nondiffracting fields, including their spatial patterns and orbital angular momentum spectra.
• To investigate the stability and statistical controllability of these fields.

Main Methods:

• Encoding the wavefront of a monochromatic laser beam with specifically designed ring-shaped non-Markovian phase masks.
• Experimental generation and propagation of the engineered optical fields.
• Analysis of the resulting field patterns, intensity profiles, and orbital angular momentum spectra using diffraction analysis and statistical methods.

Main Results:

• Successful generation of nondiffracting speckles with inherent non-Markovian properties.
• Observation of a distinct ring-shaped pattern with central dark notches in the non-Markovian fields.
• Demonstration of intensity profile stability over multiple Rayleigh ranges.
• Confirmation that statistical properties of the fields can be controlled by the non-Markovianity of the input phase masks.

Conclusions:

• A novel method for simultaneously controlling the diffraction properties and non-Markovianity of optical fields has been established.
• The generated non-Markovian nondiffracting speckles offer a new platform for studying non-Markovian dynamics in optical systems.
• This research provides fundamental insights into the interplay between wave propagation, scattering, and non-Markovian processes in light fields.