2003/12/31 by Ole Steuernagel
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #physics.gen-ph #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1119/1.1900099
published as Am. J. Phys. 73, 625 (2005) · 5 pages revtex, 11 figures
arxiv created 2005/03/02 · openalex publication_date 2005/06/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
The paraxial approximation to the scalar Helmholtz equation is shown to be equivalent to the Schrödinger equation for a quantum harmonic oscillator. This equivalence maps the Gouy phase of classical wave optics onto the time coordinate of the quantum harmonic oscillator and also helps us understand the qualitative behavior of the field and intensity distributions of focused optical beams in terms of the amplitude and probability distributions of quantum harmonic oscillators and vice versa.