Abstract

It is shown that in the limit of a small step length a ray equation can be attributed to the beam-propagation method. The equation is valid in the nonparaxial case but does not agree with the standard geometrical optics ray equation even in the paraxial limit. The beam-propagation method will not therefore predict the correct focal length of a lens. This is illustrated by a numerical example.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

Improved beam-propagation method equations for the analysis of integrated-optics lenses

A. Di Sebastiano and G. Pozzi
Opt. Lett. 17(7) 472-474 (1992)

Improved beam propagation method equations

Enrico Nichelatti and Giulio Pozzi
Appl. Opt. 37(1) 9-21 (1998)

Reformulation for the beam-propagation method

Charles Vassallo
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 10(10) 2208-2216 (1993)

Comparison of the paraxial-ray approximation and the variational method solutions to the numerical results for a beam propagating in a self-focusing Kerr medium

Jamal T. Manassah and Barry Gross
Opt. Lett. 17(14) 976-978 (1992)

Beam propagation and the ABCD ray matrices

P. A. Bélanger
Opt. Lett. 16(4) 196-198 (1991)