Microwave-controlled airy beam propagation in multilevel atomic vapors

The propagation of two-dimensional Airy beams through an atomic system in closed-Λ configuration is theoretically investigated in which the hyperfine levels are coupled by a microwave pulse. Based on the generalized Huygens-Fresnel integral, the analytical expression for Airy beam through three-level atomic vapor is presented. By utilizing the S-matrix, the susceptibility determined by the microwave field, can play an important role to control Airy beam properties such as acceleration, self-bending and the intensity distribution, in the multi-level atomic systems. The mechanism of efficient manipulation of an Airy beam may have important applications in signal processing and optical communication.