Airy trajectory engineering in dynamic linear index potentials

We study the propagation of Airy beams in transversely linear index potentials with a gradient that is dynamically changing along the propagation direction. We find exact solutions in the case of Airy and apodized (Gaussian and exponentially) Airy beams in 1 + 1 and 2 + 1 dimensions. More important, we find that the Airy beam can follow any predefined path, in which case the potential gradient is determined as a function of this path. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America