Accelerating Light

Without the action of any external force, light beams normally propagate along straight trajectories. However, if their amplitude and phase profiles are suitably engineered, light beams can freely propagate along curved trajectories, or spiral around a certain direction.

Our research aims at understanding the mechanisms of self-acceleration (i.e., the ability of light to propagate along curved trajectories, without it being subject to any external force) in different contexts, for monochromatic, and polychromatic light. Recently, for example, we have shown, how it is possible by combining different angular momentum carrying beam, to generate beams of light, that spiral around a given direction (we called them radially self-accelerating beams) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 183901 (2014)], and we have studied their vector properties [J. Opt. 20, 125601 (2018)], as well as their extension to the domain of optical pulses [Phys. Rev. A 99, 023859 (2019)].