Incoherent self-accelerating beams

Self-accelerating optical beams form as a direct outcome of interference, initiated by a predesigned initial condition. In a similar fashion, quantum mechanical particles exhibit force-free acceleration as a result of interference effects following proper preparation of the initial Schrodinger wave function. Indeed, interference is at the heart of such wave packets, and hence it is implied that self-accelerating wave packets must be coherent entities. Counter to that, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally spatially incoherent self-accelerating beams, in both the paraxial and the nonparaxial domains. We show that in principle, the transverse correlation distance can be as short as a single wavelength, while a properly designed initial beam will give rise to shape-preserving acceleration for the same distance as a coherent accelerating beam propagating on the same trajectory. These findings expand the understanding of the relation between coherence and accelerating beams, and may have implications for the design of self-accelerating quantum wave packets with limited quantum coherence.

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