SELF-FOCUSING MEDIA WITH VARIABLE INDEX OF REFRACTION

Publisher Summary The theory and the methods of calculation are considered for inhomogeneous media in connection with the problem of lenses and waveguides with a variable refractive index. There is an investigation on some characteristic types of waveguides and discussion on their properties and peculiarities; it was shown that different waveguide sections can be used as various optical elements. All these results may be regarded as consequences of the method of constructing inhomogeneous media for given ray paths. Naturally this method can be used in many other fields and, in particular, it solves the problem of finding new types of lenses (and other optical elements) with variable refractive index that ensures the appropriate transformations of wavefronts. It is evident that this method is applicable to cylindrical media with circular symmetry, and to any three-dimensional media.