No Arabic abstract
Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs), which possesses polarization distribution of rotational symmetry on the transverse plane, can be developed in many optical technologies. Conventional methods to generate CVBs contain redundant interferometers or need to switch among diverse elements, thus being inconvenient in applications containing multiple CVBs. Here we provide a passive polarization-selective device to substitute interferometers and simplify generation setup. It is accomplished by reversing topological charges of orbital angular momentum based on polarization-selective Gouy phase. In the process, tunable input light is the only condition to generate CVB with arbitrary topological charges. To cover both azimuthal and radial parameters of CVBs, we express the mapping between scalar Laguerre-Gaussian light on basic Poincare sphere and CVB on high-order Poincare sphere. The proposed device simplifies the generation of CVBs enormously, and thus has potentials in integrated devices for both quantum and classic optical experiments.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel interferometric approach to generate arbitrary cylindrical vector beams on the higher order Poincare sphere. Our scheme is implemented by collinear superposition of two orthogonal circular polarizations with opposite topological charges. By modifying the amplitude and phase factors of the two beams, respectively, any desired vector beams on the higher order Poincare sphere with high tunability can be acquired. Our research provides a convenient way to evolve the polarization states in any path on the high order Poincare sphere.
Displays are an indispensable medium to visually convey information in our daily life. Although conventional dye-based color displays have been rigorously advanced by world leading companies, critical issues still remain. For instance, color fading and wavelength-limited resolution restrict further developments. Plasmonic colors emerging from resonant interactions between light and metallic nanostructures can overcome these restrictions. With dynamic characteristics enabled by functional materials, dynamic plasmonic coloration may find a variety of applications in display technologies. In this review, we elucidate basic concepts for dynamic plasmonic color generation and highlight recent advances. In particular, we devote our review to a selection of dynamic controls endowed by functional materials, including magnesium, liquid crystals, electrochromic polymers, and phase change materials. We also discuss their performance in view of potential applications in current display technologies.
Phase change materials (PCMs) have long been used as a storage medium in rewritable compact disk and later in random access memory. In recent years, the integration of PCMs with nanophotonic structures has introduced a new paradigm for non-volatile reconfigurable optics. However, the high loss of the archetypal PCM Ge2Sb2Te5 in both visible and telecommunication wavelengths has fundamentally limited its applications. Sb2S3 has recently emerged as a wide-bandgap PCM with transparency windows ranging from 610nm to near-IR. In this paper, the strong optical phase modulation and low optical loss of Sb2S3 are experimentally demonstrated for the first time in integrated photonic platforms at both 750nm and 1550nm. As opposed to silicon, the thermo-optic coefficient of Sb2S3 is shown to be negative, making the Sb2S3-Si hybrid platform less sensitive to thermal fluctuation. Finally, a Sb2S3 integrated non-volatile microring switch is demonstrated which can be tuned electrically between a high and low transmission state with a contrast over 30dB. Our work experimentally verified the prominent phase modification and low loss of Sb2S3 in wavelength ranges relevant for both solid-state quantum emitter and telecommunication, enabling potential applications such as optical field programmable gate array, post-fabrication trimming, and large-scale integrated quantum photonic network.
Manipulating the polarization of light on the microscale or nanoscale is essential for integrated photonics and quantum optical devices. Nowadays, the metasurface allows one to build on-chip devices that efficiently manipulate the polarization states. However, it remains challenging to generate different types of polarization states simultaneously, which is required to encode information for quantum computing and quantum cryptography applications. By introducing geometrical-scaling-induced (GSI) phase modulations, we demonstrate that an assembly of circularly polarized (CP) and linearly polarized (LP) states can be simultaneously generated by a single metasurface made of L-shaped resonators with different geometrical features. Upon illumination, each resonator diffracts the CP state with a certain GSI phase. The interaction of these diffractions leads to the desired output beams, where the polarization state and the propagation direction can be accurately tuned by selecting the geometrical shape, size, and spatial sequence of each resonator in the unit cell. As an example of potential applications, we show that an image can be encoded with different polarization profiles at different diffraction orders and decoded with a polarization analyzer. This approach resolves a challenging problem in integrated optics and is inspiring for on-chip quantum information processing.
We present a comprehensive review of recent developments in the field of chiral plasmonics. Significant advances have been made recently in understanding the working principles of chiral plasmonic structures. With advances in micro- and nanofabrication techniques, a variety of chiral plasmonic nanostructures have been experimentally realized; these tailored chiroptical properties vastly outperform those of their molecular counterparts. We focus on chiral plasmonic nanostructures created using bottom-up approaches, which not only allow for rational design and fabrication but most intriguingly in many cases also enable dynamic manipulation and tuning of chiroptical responses. We first discuss plasmon-induced chirality, resulting from the interaction of chiral molecules with plasmonic excitations. Subsequently, we discuss intrinsically chiral colloids, which give rise to optical chirality owing to their chiral shapes. Finally, we discuss plasmonic chirality, achieved by arranging achiral plasmonic particles into handed configurations on static or active templates. Chiral plasmonic nanostructures are very promising candidates for real-life applications owing to their significantly larger optical chirality than natural molecules. In addition, chiral plasmonic nanostructures offer engineerable and dynamic chiroptical responses, which are formidable to achieve in molecular systems. We thus anticipate that the field of chiral plasmonics will attract further widespread attention in applications ranging from enantioselective analysis to chiral sensing, structural determination, and in situ ultrasensitive detection of multiple disease biomarkers, as well as optical monitoring of transmembrane transport and intracellular metabolism.