New X-wave solutions of free-space scalar wave equation and their finite size realization

Based on the method proposed by Donnelly and Ziolkowski (1992, 1993), a new general solution has been obtained for the isotropic/homogenous scalar wave equation in cylindrical coordinates. It is shown that well-known limited diffraction beams such as Durnin´s Bessel beams (1987), Lu and Greenleaf´s X-wave (1992), localized waves of Donnelly and Ziolkowski (1992, 1993), and limited-diffraction, bandlimited waves of Li and Bharath (1998) can be obtained from this generic solution as particular cases. In addition, we have obtained new X-wave solutions and have calculated the field characteristics for one of them using a finite aperture realization. It is shown that with a proper choice of the free parameter values, well-behaved X-waves with narrow beamwidths and large depths of field can be achieved. For similar source spectra, the results are compared with Lu and Greenleaf´s zeroth-order X-wave, and it is shown that the depth of field and beamwidth are very comparable.