E. Heyman et Lb. Felsen, Gaussian beam and pulsed-beam dynamics: complex-source and complex-spectrum formulations within and beyond paraxial asymptotics, J OPT SOC A, 18(7), 2001, pp. 1588-1611
Paraxial Gaussian beams (GB's) are collimated wave objects that have found
wide application in optical system analysis and design. A GB propagates in
physical space according to well-established quasi-geometric-optical rules
that can accommodate weakly inhomogeneous media as well as reflection from
and transmission through curved interfaces and thin-lens configurations. We
examine the GB concept from a broad perspective in the frequency domain (F
D) and the short-pulse time domain (TD) and within as well as arbitrarily b
eyond the paraxial constraint. For the formal analysis, which is followed b
y physics-matched high-frequency asymptotics, we use a (space-time)-(wavenu
mber-frequency) phase-space format to discuss the exact complex-source-poin
t method and the associated asymptotic beam tracking by means of complex ra
ys, the TD pulsed-beam (PB) ultrawideband wave-packet counterpart of the FD
GB, GB's and PB's as basis functions for representing arbitrary fields, GB
and PB diffraction, and FD-TD radiation from extended continuous aperture
distributions in which the GB and the PB bases, installed through windowed
transforms, yield numerically compact physics-matched apriori localization
in the plane-wave-based nonwindowed spectral representations. (C) 2001 Opti
cal Society of America.