Observation of concentrating paraxial beams

Abstract

We report the first, to the best of our knowledge, observation of concentrating paraxial beams of light in a linear nondispersive medium. We have generated this intriguing class of light beams, recently predicted by one of us, in both one- and two-dimensional configurations. As we demonstrate in our experiments, these concentrating beams display unconventional features, such as the ability to strongly focus in the focal spot of a thin lens like a plane wave, while keeping their total energy finite.