Airy–Gauss Beam in Optical Manipulation Problems

Abstract

Propagation of the Airy–Gauss beam is analyzed in the paraxial approximation for the case where its waist associated with the Gaussian exponential is in an arbitrarily located plane perpendicular to the propagation direction. It is shown that from the viewpoint of the quality criteria for the approximation of the Airy function, the characteristic length of diffraction-free propagation, and the beam intensity and its derivatives with respect to transverse coordinates at different points of space, the Airy–Gauss beams are superior to the widely used Airy beams. The results of the analysis of how the Airy–Gauss beam characteristics affect the longitudinal and transverse density components of the orbital and spin constituents of the momentum and angular momentum, which is necessary information for problems of optical manipulation of micro- and nanoparticles, allows these beams to be considered as more promising for solving these problems.