The peculiar spatiotemporal profile of an optical realization of the nonspreading axisymmetric X wave has been recorded. For treatment of the experiment a simple representation of X-type waves and their correlation with plane waves has been introduced, which covers also a broader class of incoherent wave fields. [S0031-9007(97)04566-3]

The Lorentz transformations of propagation-invariant localized waves (also known as nondispersive or nondiffracting or undistorted progressive waves) are studied in the frequency-momentum space. For supports of wave functions in this space rules of transformation are derived which allow one to group all localized waves into distinct classes: subluminal, luminal, and superluminal localized waves. It is shown that for each class there is an inertial frame in which any given localized wave takes a particularly simple form. In other words, any localized wave is nothing but a relativistically aberrant and Doppler shifted version of a simple "seed" wave. Also discussed are the relations of the physical (subluminal) Lorentz tranformation to other mathematical tranformations used in the literature on localized waves, as well as physical interpretation of the substantial changes that localized waves undergo if observed and generated in different inertial frames.

We present direct measurements of the spatiotemporal electric field of an ultrashort Bessel-X pulse generated using a conical lens (axicon). These measurements were made using the linear-optical interferometric technique SEA TADPOLE, which has micrometer spatial resolution and femtosecond temporal resolution. From our measurements, both the superluminal velocity of the Bessel pulse and the propagation invariance of the central spot are apparent. We verified our measurements with simulations.

Linear-optical solutions to the problem of temporal broadening of ultrashort light pulses propagating in air or in solid optical samples are proposed and tested by computer simulations. A special holographic-element setup is analyzed in detail.

We report experiments on ultrashort pulses that maintain their strong lateral and longitudinal localization in a bulk linear highly dispersive medium. The diameter of the central peak and the temporal width of the field autocorrelation function of the pulses were 20mum and 210 fs, respectively, and the spatiotemporal structure was preserved in the course of 7-cm propagation in the sample. The pulses were obtained with a computer hologram designed for generating the Bessel beam and can be applied in femtosecond laser optics.