Nonhomogeneously polarized Airy beams and their accelerating lattices of optical quasiparticles.

Abstract

Radially polarized Airy vector beams are numerically investigated in terms of their spatial spectra, electromagnetic field distribution, and topological structure. Airy-type beams, which belong to the class of non-diffracting optical beams, are notable for their ability to propagate in a bent accelerating trajectory while reconstructing their intensity profiles even after encountering obstructions. This work analytically investigates vector beams with non-uniform, radial and azimuthal polarization distributions, which exhibit phase singularities and intensity zeros (dark spots). Additional topological features are observed, and the skyrmionic density of the electric field and the linear momentum are analyzed numerically, revealing the existence of an accelerating lattice of optical quasiparticles in the beams.