Interference of traveling nondiffracting beams

Abstract

We study numerically the interference resulting from the superposition of two Bessel beams propagating in free space. We discuss how to obtain such beams and show the existence of the self-imaging effect during propagation. The evolution of the superimposed Bessel beams is analyzed on the basis of the evolution of the individual beams. Our exact numerical predictions contradict previous approximated analytical treatments, showing that they can lead to quantitatively wrong results and misleading conclusions.