title: Energy exchange between the Cartesian components of a paraxial beam in a uniaxial crystal.
abstract: The evolution of the optical power associated with the Cartesian components of a paraxial beam propagating along the optical axis in a uniaxial crystal is investigated. The energy exchange is found to undergo a saturation that is due to both diffraction and coupling between the chi- and gamma-field components; for linearly polarized circularly symmetric input beams, the asymptotic power exchange always amounts to a quarter of the total power. The general results are applied to the case of astigmatic Gaussian beams, which admits of a fully analytical description. The case of finite length crystals is also considered.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Università Roma Tre, Italy. ciattoni@fis.uniroma3.it
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciattoni
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cincotti
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weber