Spatiotemporal bessel beams: theory and experiments

We describe a family of dispersion-free and diffraction-free optical beams consisting in two-dimensional wave packets with a spatiotemporal Bessel (STB) profile propagating in media with anomalous dispersion. We also describe quasi-invariant optical beams with a spatiotemporal Bessel-Gauss (STBG) profile; these wave packets have finite dimensions and energy, conditions to be representative of physical beams. The paper provides a detailed account of the properties of STB and STBG beams, including their spatially resolved frequency spectrum, their far-field behaviour and a comparison of the propagation of STBG beams with that of Gaussian wave packets. An experimental setup based on a folded pulse shaper has allowed to generate STBG beams using the ultrashort pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser. The analysis of the spatially resolved frequency spectrum and of the spatial and temporal profiles obtained experimentally shows good agreement with theory. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America