Experimental realization of Airy beams on incoherent background

We report an experimental realization of recently introduced Airy beams on incoherent background (ABIBs). The ABIBs are structured random beams that defy diffraction in free space, making them attractive to free -space optical communications, information transfer and imaging. We demonstrate here that the (truncated) laboratory realizations of ABIBs are more resilient to diffraction and far more capable of self-healing after having been obstructed by defects than are truncated coherent Airy beams of the same width of the main lobe and truncation length. The combination of remarkable propagation invariance and self-healing potential of ABIBs carries promise for their applications to optical communications in randomly inhomogeneous environments and biological tissue imaging.

Automated summary

We have experimentally realized Airy beams on incoherent background (ABIBs), which are structured random beams that can defy diffraction. These beams are attractive for optical communications, information transfer, and imaging. Our experiments have shown that truncated ABIBs are more resilient to diffraction and have stronger self-healing capabilities after obstruction compared to truncated coherent Airy beams.