Airy beams can propagate through an optical medium without any diffraction. Among the several types of so-called non-diffractive beams, they are the only example in the most simple (1+1)D configuration. In addition, they are accelerated or self-bending during propagation in homogeneous media, which is a very attractive characteristic from the practical point of view. In this talk, I will review these unique features of Airy beams and discuss their application to particle manipulation and slow/superluminal light transmission
Kyoung-Youm Kim received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 2002, and joined the Telecommunication R&D Center of Samsung Electronics Company, Korea, where he was engaged in the development of optical components for mobile handsets including backlighting modules and mobile health sensors. Since 2007, he has been a faculty member of the Department of Optical Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, Korea. His research interest is in nano-optics including plasmonics, optical metamaterials, and light-matter interactions in nano-size semiconductor devices.