On a New Type of Micrometer-Structured Non-Diffracting Wave Field: Surface Beams Based on Continuous Superpositions of Zeroth-Order Bessel Beams

Abstract

In this work, a new type of non-diffracting beam constructed from continuous superpositions of scalar zerothorder Bessel beams is theoretically and numerically investigated. The main idea is to provide solutions to the scalar wave equation whose field intensity pattern can be arbitrarily specified over a Cartesian surface within the range of – at most a few millimeters. The resulting micrometer-structured beam is expected to serve as laser beams for optical trapping and manipulation of small particles, atom guiding, photophoretictrap and holographic volumetric displays, micromachining, 2D and 3D imaging and printing, among others. The method here presented could be further extended in order to encompass vector beams and advanced techniques to reduce interference effects.