Breaking the temporal resolution limit by superoscillating optical beats

Abstract

Band-limited functions can oscillate locally at an arbitrarily fast rate through an interference phenomenon known as superoscillations. Using an optical pulse with a superoscillatory envelope we experimentally break the temporal Fourier-transform limit having a temporal feature which is approximately three times shorter than the duration of a transform-limited Gaussian pulse having a comparable bandwidth while maintaining 29.5% visibility. Numerical simulations demonstrate the ability of such signals to achieve temporal super-resolution.

Super-Oscillating Airy Pattern

“…[15][16][17] The same concept was also adopted in the time domain to suggest overcoming absorption in dielectric materials, 18 for realizing sub-Fourier focusing of radio-frequency signals 19 and for achieving temporal optical super-resolution. 20 A nondiffracting super-oscillating optical beam was also demonstrated. 21 In this work, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that a judicious selection of interfering Airy beams (modes) can create a Superoscillatory Airy Pattern (SOAP) exhibiting unique properties.…”

Observation of optical backflow

“…Various experimental works involving superoscillations, which appeared in the last two decades, includes super-resolution microscopy [20][21][22], optical beam shaping [23][24][25], nano-focusing of light [26], particle trapping [27], electron beam shaping [28] and nonlinear optical frequency conversion [29]. * alonb@eng.tau.ac.il Optical superoscillations were also demonstrated experimentally in the time domain [30,31]. A complementary phenomenon to superoscillation, termed suboscillation, where a lower bound limited signal oscillates locally slower than its lowest Fourier component, was discovered recently [32].…”

Superoscillatory PT -symmetric potentials

“…A complementary canonical form for suboscillatory functions, i.e., signals which exhibit local oscillations that are slower than their lowest Fourier component, was recently found as well [49]. Superoscillations have found applications in various fields of optics, such as imaging [50][51][52], ultrafast optics [53,54], nonlinear light propagation [55], light-beam shaping [56][57][58] and optical traps [59].…”