The asymmetric Goos-H\"anchen effect

Abstract

We show in which conditions optical gaussian beams, propagating throughout an homogeneous dielectric right angle prism, present an asymmetric Goos-H\"anchen (GH) effect. This asymmetric behavior is seen for incidence at critical angles and happens in the propagation direction of the outgoing beam. The asymmetric GH effect can be also seen as an amplification of the standard GH shift. Due to the fact that it only depends on the ratio between the wavelength and the minimal waist size of the incoming gaussian beam, it can be also used to determine one of these parameters. Multiple peaks interference is an additional phenomenon seen in the presence of such asymmetric effects.