IMAGING OF OPTICAL WAVETRAINS

We demonstrate photographic techniques to record and visualize infrared ( lambda equals 10 mu m) and lambda equals 458nm) wavetrains. The fields are mapped in the form of wavefronts. The method is applied to fields excited in the neighborhood of small scattering objects. Especially we record guided modes and surface plasmons such that the phase of scattering, the velocity of propagation and the decay length can be read directly from the photographs.