title: Virtual source for an Airy beam.
abstract: We identify a virtual source for generating an Airy wave. A spectral integral expression is derived to describe the Airy wave, which, in the paraxial limit, yields the freely accelerating, nondiffracting, and finite energy Airy beam. From the spectral representation of the Airy wave, the first two orders of nonparaxial corrections to the paraxial Airy beam are determined. Also, a connection between the obtained Airy wave and the well-known complex source point spherical wave is given.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Transient Optics and Photonics, Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710119, China.
authors.forename: Shaohui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Baoli
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dan
authors.forename: Yanlong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gao