Caustic analysis of partially coherent self-accelerating beams: Investigating self-healing property

Abstract

We employed caustic theory to analyze the propagation dynamics of partially coherent self-accelerating beams such as self-healing of partially coherent Airy beams. Our findings revealed that as the spatial coherence decreases, the self-healing ability of beams increases. This result have been demonstrated both in simulation and experiment. This is an innovative application of the caustic theory to the field of partially coherent structured beams, and provides a comprehensive understanding of self-healing property. Our results have significant implications for practical applications of partially coherent beams in fields such as optical communication, encryption, and imaging.