Abstract

A key step in any ray-based method for propagating waves is the choice of a family of rays to be associated with the initial wave field. We develop some basic prescriptions for constructing initial ray families to match two particular types of waves. Various Gaussian and Bessel beams are separately given special treatment because of their general interest. These ideas are directly useful for a newly developed method for ray-based wave modeling. The new method expresses the wave as a superposition of ray contributions that is independent of the width of the field element associated with each ray. This insensitivity is investigated here even when the elemental width varies from ray to ray. The results increase the applicability of the new wave-modeling scheme.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

Using rays better. III. Error estimates and illustrative applications in smooth media

M. A. Alonso and G. W. Forbes
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 18(6) 1357-1370 (2001)

Using rays better. I. Theory for smoothly varying media

G. W. Forbes and M. A. Alonso
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 18(5) 1132-1145 (2001)

Using rays better. IV. Theory for refraction and reflection

G. W. Forbes
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Radiometry and wide-angle wave fields. II. Coherent fields in three dimensions

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Phase-space distributions for high-frequency fields

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