title: Generalized eikonal treatment of the Gouy phase shift.
abstract: We use a generalized refractive index that includes diffraction effects to show that the Gouy phase shift can be seen as an intensity averaged optical path difference between the generalized eikonal and the geometrical eikonal. This approach generalizes previous treatments to include the effects of phase distortion and confirms the role of transverse spatial confinement in the Gouy shift.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. junyang@eecs.umich.edu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Herbert G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Winful