No Arabic abstract
Liquid crystals allow for the real-time control of the polarization of light. We describe and provide some experimental examples of the types of general polarization transformations, including universal polarization transformations, that can be accomplished with liquid crystals in tandem with fixed waveplates. Implementing these transformations with an array of liquid crystals, e.g., a spatial light modulator, allows for the manipulation of the polarization across a beams transverse plane. We outline applications of such general spatial polarization transformations in the generation of exotic types of vector polarized beams, a polarization magnifier, and the correction of polarization aberrations in light fields.
Birefringent materials or nanostructures that introduce phase differences between two linear polarizations underpin the operation of wave plates for polarization control of light. Here we develop metasurfaces realizing a distinct class of complex-birefringent wave plates, which combine polarization transformation with a judiciously tailored polarization-dependent phase retardance and amplitude filtering via diffraction. We prove that the presence of loss enables the mapping from any chosen generally non-orthogonal pair of polarizations to any other pair at the output. We establish an optimal theoretical design-framework based on pairwise nanoresonator structures and experimentally demonstrate unique properties of metasurfaces in the amplification of small polarization differences and polarization coupling with unconventional phase control. Furthermore, we reveal that these metasurfaces can perform arbitrary transformations of biphoton polarization-encoded quantum states, including the modification of the degree of entanglement. Thereby, such flat devices can facilitate novel types of multi-functional polarization optics for classical and quantum applications.
We consider coupled waveguide lattices as an architecture that implement a wide range of multiport transformations. In this architecture, a particular transfer matrix is obtained through setting the step-wise profiles of the propagation constants seen by the field evolving in the lattice. To investigate the transformation capabilities, the implementation of a set of transfer matrices taken at random and particular cases of discrete Fourier transform, Hadamard and permutation matrices have been described. Because the waveguide lattices schemes are more compact than their traditional lumped-parameter counterparts, our architecture may be beneficial for using in photonic information processing systems of the future.
We examine a Kerr phase gate in a semiconductor quantum well structure based on the tunnelling interference effect. We show that there exist a specific signal field detuning, at which the absorption/amplification of the probe field will be eliminated with the increase of the tunnelling interference. Simultaneously, the probe field will acquire a -pi phase shift at the exit of the medium. We demonstrate with numerical simulations that a complete 180^circ phase rotation for the probe field at the exit of the medium is achieved, which may result in many applications in information science and telecommunication.
Free space propagation and conventional optical systems such as lenses and mirrors all perform spatial unitary transforms. However, the subset of transforms available through these conventional systems is limited in scope. We present here a unitary programmable mode converter (UPMC) capable of performing any spatial unitary transform of the light field. It is based on a succession of reflections on programmable deformable mirrors and free space propagation. We first show theoretically that a UPMC without limitations on resources can perform perfectly any transform. We then build an experimental implementation of the UPMC and show that, even when limited to three reflections on an array of 12 pixels, the UPMC is capable of performing single mode tranforms with an efficiency greater than 80% for the first 4 modes of the TEM basis.
Despite the fact that incandescent sources are usually spatially incoherent, it has been known for some time that a proper design of a thermal source can modify its spatial coherence. A natural question is whether it is possible to extend this analysis to electroluminescence and photoluminescence. A theoretical framework is needed to explore these properties. In this paper, we extend a general coherence-absorption relation valid at equilibrium to two non-equilibrium cases: luminescent bodies and anisothermal bodies. We then use this relation to analyse the differences between the isothermal and anisothermal cases.