Elegant Laguerre-Gaussian beams - Formulation of exact vector solution

Abstract

In photonic applications of optical beams, their transverse cross-section should be often narrow, with a diameter in their waist of the order of one wavelength or even less. Within this range, the paraxial approximation of beam fields is not valid and standard corrections by field expansions with respect to a small parameter are not efficient as well. Thus, still there is a need for more accurate beam field description. In this report, an exact vector solution for free-space propagation is given in terms of elegant Laguerre-Gaussian beams. The analysis starts from the known paraxial field approximation and next, through bidirectional field transformation and application of a Hertz potential leads to an exact vector solution. The role of the paraxial solution in construction of the exact solution is elucidated. The method works well not only in cases of free-space propagation but also in description of beam interactions with planar interfaces and multilayers.