Dynamics of accelerating Bessel solutions of Maxwell's equations

We investigate the propagation dynamics of accelerating beams that are shape-preserving solutions of the Maxwell equations, and explore the contribution of their evanescent field components in detail. Both apodized and non-apodized Bessel beam configurations are considered. We show that, in spite of the fact that their evanescent tails do not propagate, these nonparaxial beams can still accelerate along circular trajectories and can exhibit large deflections. Subsequently, our formulation is extended in other two-dimensional vectorial arrangements. The reported results can be useful in plasmonic and other subwavelength and near-field settings. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America