Nondiffracting optical beams: physical properties, experiments, and applications

The controversial term "nondiffracting beam" was introduced into optics by Durnin in 1987. Discussions related to that term revived interest in problems of the light diffraction and resulted in an appearance of the new research direction of the classical optics, dealing with the localized transfer of electromagnetic energy. In this paper, the physical concept of the nondiffracting propagation is presented and the basic properties of the nondiffracting beams are reviewed. Attention is also focused to the experimental realization and to applications of the nondiffracting beams.