Vaveliuk, PabloLencina, Alberto GermánRodrigo Martín-Romo, José AugustoMartínez Matos, Óscar2023-06-192023-06-192014-04-150146-959210.1364/OL.39.002370https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/33560© 2014 Optical Society of America. Financial support from the SENAI-DR/Bahia, Brazil, and the Spanish MEC under project TEC 2011-23629 is acknowledged. P. V. acknowledges a PQ fellowship from CNPq (Brazil).In this Letter a new class of light beam arisen from the symmetrization of the spectral cubic phase of an Airy beam is presented. The symmetric Airy beam exhibits peculiar features. It propagates at initial stages with a single central lobe that autofocuses and then collapses immediately behind the autofocus. Then, the beam splits into two specular off-axis parabolic lobes like those corresponding to two Airy beams accelerating in opposite directions. Its features are analyzed and compared to other kinds of autofocusing beams; the superposition of two conventional Airy beams having opposite accelerations (in rectangular coordinates) and also to the recently demonstrated circular Airy beam (in cylindrical coordinates). The generation of a symmetric Airy beam is experimentally demonstrated as well. Besides, based on its main features, some possible applications are also discussed.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.39.002370http://www.opticsinfobase.orgopen access535Abruptly Autofocusing WavesÓptica (Física)2209.19 Óptica Física