Chapter 1 Introduction to Phase-Structured Electromagnetic Waves
1.1 INTRODUCTION
A cursory inspection of the indices of the classic books on electromagnetic theory or optics shows that, in free space, propagation is generally investigated only for spherical waves and the mythological plane wave. The fields of the propagating wave discussed in such books have, in general, no detailed phase or amplitude structure. In the early days of lasers, a beam was specified solely in terms of its polarization and intensity profiles. Usually the profile of the laser was described in terms of the rectangular symmetric Hermite–Gaussian modes of amplitude ...
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