No Arabic abstract
Vector vortex beams are a class of optical beams with singularities in their space-variant polarization. Vector vortex beam lasers have applications in many areas including imaging and communication, where vertical-cavity lasers emitting Gaussian beams have been most widely used so far. Generation of vector vortex beams from vertical-cavity lasers has required external control or modulation. Here, by utilizing a polarization-selective subwavelength grating as one of the reflectors in a vertical semiconductor microcavity, we design the spin textures of the polariton mode and demonstrate polariton lasing in a single-mode, radially polarized vector vortex beam. Polarization and phase distributions of the emission are characterized by polarization-resolved imaging and interferometry. This method of vector vortex laser beam generation allows low threshold power, stable single-mode operation, scalability, and on-chip integration, all of which are important for applications in imaging and communication.
Topological insulators are a class of electronic materials exhibiting robust edge states immune to perturbations and disorder. This concept has been successfully adapted in photonics, where topologically nontrivial waveguides and topological lasers were developed. However, the exploration of topological properties in a given photonic system is limited to a fabricated sample, without the flexibility to reconfigure the structure in-situ. Here, we demonstrate an all-optical realization of the orbital Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model in a microcavity exciton-polariton system, whereby a cavity photon is hybridized with an exciton in a GaAs quantum well. We induce a zigzag potential for exciton polaritons all-optically, by shaping the nonresonant laser excitation, and measure directly the eigenspectrum and topological edge states of a polariton lattice in a nonlinear regime of bosonic condensation. Furthermore, taking advantage of the tunability of the optically induced lattice we modify the intersite tunneling to realize a topological phase transition to a trivial state. Our results open the way to study topological phase transitions on-demand in fully reconfigurable hybrid photonic systems that do not require sophisticated sample engineering.
We theoretically and experimentally studied a novel class of vortex beams named open vortex beams (OVBs). Such beams are generated using Gaussian beams diffracted by partially blocked fork-shaped gratings (PB-FSGs).The analytical model of OVBs in the near field and far field is given by superpositions of Hypergeometric (HyG) modes. Unlike conventional integer and fractional vortex beams, the OVBs can have both an open ring structure and an integer topological charge (TC). The TC is decided by the circumference covered by the open ring. It is also quantitatively shown that a $pi/2$ rotation of the open ring occurs in the propagation of an OVB due to the Gouy phase shift. Futhermore, we demonstrate experimental generation and detection of OVBs. Our experimental results are in very good agreement with the theory. We believe that the OVB can be the potential candidate for numerous applications, such as particle manipulation, quantum information and optical metrology.
Angle-resolved second harmonic generation (SHG) spectra of ZnO microwires show characteristic Fano resonances in the spectral vicinity of exciton-polariton modes. The output SHG spectra after SHG interacting with exciton polariton shows a resonant enhancement peak accompanied by a suppression dip originating from the constructive and destructive interference respectively. It is demonstrated that the Fano line shape, and thus the Fano asymmetry parameter q, can be tuned by the phase-shift of the two channels. The phase-dependent q was calculated and the model describes our experimental results well. In particular, the phase-to-q relation unveil the crucial information about the dynamics of the system, e.g., defining the line shape of output SHG spectra in a superposition of quantum states.
Optical singularities manifesting at the center of vector vortex beams are unstable, since their topological charge is higher than the lowest value permitted by Maxwells equations. Inspired by conceptually similar phenomena occurring in the polarization pattern characterizing the skylight, we show how perturbations that break the symmetry of radially symmetric vector beams lead to the formation of a pair of fundamental and stable singularities, i.e. points of circular polarization. We prepare a superposition of a radial (or azimuthal) vector beam and a uniformly linearly polarized Gaussian beam; by varying the amplitudes of the two fields, we control the formation of pairs of these singular points and their spatial separation. We complete this study by applying the same analysis to vector vortex beams with higher topological charges, and by investigating the features that arise when increasing the intensity of the Gaussian term. Our results can find application in the context of singularimetry, where weak fields are measured by considering them as perturbation of unstable optical beams.
We present a simple novel scheme that converts a Gaussian beam into an approximated radially polarized beam using coherent polarization manipulation together with Poynting walk-off in birefringent crystals. Our scheme alleviates the interferometric stability required by previous schemes that implemented this coherent mode summation using Mach-Zehnder-like interferometers. A symmetrical arrangement of two walk-off crystals with a half-wave plate, allows coherence control even when the laser has short temporal coherence length. We generated 14 watts of radially polarized beam from an Ytterbium fiber laser, only limited by the available fiber laser power.