Quantitative study on propagation and healing of Airy beams under experimental conditions.

We investigate the propagation and healing of Airy beams in two dimensions that are obtainable under practical experimental conditions. We introduce an intensity similarity factor to quantitatively describe how an Airy beam retains its original shape. Based on such a figure of merit, we define a shape-retaining distance to quantify how far an Airy beam can keep the shape of its main lobe upon propagation and a healing distance to quantify how soon an initially partially blocked Airy beam can restore its main lobe profile.