Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
852149 Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 2010 9 Pages PDF
Abstract

Matrix representations of Maxwell's equations have a striking resemblance to the Dirac equation. We exploit this resemblance to build a beam optics formalism from an exact eight-dimensional matrix representation of the Maxwell equations. The Foldy–Wouthuysen iterative diagonalization technique is employed to obtain a Hamiltonian description for a system with varying refractive index. The beam-optical Hamiltonian is shown to have a wavelength-dependent part, resulting in the wavelength-dependent modifications of light beam optics. The present study is the generalization of the traditional and non-traditional prescription of Helmholtz optics.

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Physical Sciences and Engineering Engineering Engineering (General)
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