Paraxial and Nonparaxial Evolution of Linearly Polarized Chirped Airy Gaussian Beam Array in Isotropic Free Space

In order to explore the transmission characteristics of linearly polarized chirped airy Gaussian beam array (LPCAGBA) in isotropic free space, we theoretically and numerically demonstrated the side view and intensity distribution of this beam array at several cross sections in paraxial and nonparaxial situations, respectively, based on the derived analytical electric expressions of x-, y-, and longitudinal components; the linearly polarized airy beam array (LPABA) and linearly polarized airy Gaussian beam array (LPAGBA) are deemed as two special cases in our model. These figures clearly show that both the chirp C and the refractive index n of the environments significantly impact the self-bending degree of LPCAGBA. However, the effects of these two factors on the trend of LPCAGBA are opposite. Additionally, the intensity appearances of the beam array on two axes are unaffected by the polarizing angle φ, but the LPCAGBA energy value in both x- and y-directions do vary with changes in φ. In the nonparaxial situation, the longitudinal component of LPCAGBA emerges even though the intensity of this direction in the initial plane is zero, but its magnitude is far less than that of the x- and y-components. Notably, unlike the paraxial components, the intensity pattern of the longitudinal component rotates counterclockwise around the origin as φ increases.