Photon centroids and their subluminal propagation

Fuente: arXiv
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1. Verfasser: Bliokh, Konstantin Y.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Bliokh, Konstantin Y.
author_facet Bliokh, Konstantin Y.
contents We examine properties and propagation of the energy-density and photon-probability centroids of electromagnetic wavepackets in free space. In the second-order paraxial approximation, both of these centroids propagate with the same subluminal velocity because of the transverse confinement of the wavepacket and its diffraction. The tiny difference between the energy and probability centroid velocities appears only in the forth order. We consider three types of wavepackets: Gaussian, Bessel, and non-diffracting Bessel. In all these cases, the subluminal propagation is clearly visible in the intensity distributions and can be measured experimentally in both classical-light and single-photon regimes. For Gaussian wavepackets, the half-wavelength delay is accumulated after propagation over about 12 Rayleigh lengths.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_00490
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Photon centroids and their subluminal propagation
Bliokh, Konstantin Y.
Optics
We examine properties and propagation of the energy-density and photon-probability centroids of electromagnetic wavepackets in free space. In the second-order paraxial approximation, both of these centroids propagate with the same subluminal velocity because of the transverse confinement of the wavepacket and its diffraction. The tiny difference between the energy and probability centroid velocities appears only in the forth order. We consider three types of wavepackets: Gaussian, Bessel, and non-diffracting Bessel. In all these cases, the subluminal propagation is clearly visible in the intensity distributions and can be measured experimentally in both classical-light and single-photon regimes. For Gaussian wavepackets, the half-wavelength delay is accumulated after propagation over about 12 Rayleigh lengths.
title Photon centroids and their subluminal propagation
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00490