Vector Optical Bullets in Dielectric Media: Polarization Structures and Group-Velocity Effects

Abstract

Theoretical studies on the generation of nondiffracting and nondispersive light pulses and their experimental implementation are one of the renowned problems within electromagnetics. Current technologies enable the creation of short-duration pulses of a few cycles with high power and fluency. An application of these techniques to the field of nondiffracting and nondispersive pulses requires a proper mathematical description of highly focused vector pulses. In this work, we study vector optical bullets in a dielectric medium with different polarization structures: linear, azimuthal, and radial. We report the differences caused by the vector model compared to the scalar model. We analyze effects caused by superluminal, subluminal, or even negative group velocity on the properties of vector optical bullets inside a dielectric material.

Keywords

• optical bullets
• focus wave modes
• polarization
• diffraction
• dispersion
• nondiffracting beams