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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Optical spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in inhomogeneous anisotropic media

Lorenzo Marrucci, +2 more
- 28 Apr 2006 - 
- Vol. 96, Iss: 16, pp 163905
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TLDR
An optical process in which the spin angular momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wave-front helicity controlled by the input polarization is demonstrated.
Abstract
We demonstrate experimentally an optical process in which the spin angular momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wave-front helicity controlled by the input polarization. This phenomenon requires the interaction of light with matter that is both optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic. The underlying physics is also associated with the so-called Pancharatnam-Berry geometrical phases involved in any inhomogeneous transformation of the optical polarization.

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Single-photon experiments with liquid crystals for quantum science and quantum engineering applications

TL;DR: In this paper, the results on using liquid crystals (LCs) in experiments with nonclassical light sources: (1) single-photon sources exhibiting antibunching (separation of all photons in time), which are key components for secure quantum communication systems and (2) entangled photon source with photons exhibiting quantum interference in a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer.
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Vortex coronagraphy from self-engineered liquid crystal spin-orbit masks

TL;DR: In this article, a soft route toward optical vortex coronagraphy based on self-engineered electrically tunable vortex masks made of liquid crystal topological defects was reported, which could be useful in optical imaging whenever optical phase singularities are at play.
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Elastic collision and breather formation of spatiotemporal vortex light bullets in a cubic-quintic nonlinear medium

S K Adhikari
TL;DR: In this paper, the statics and dynamics of a stable, mobile 3D spatiotemporal vortex light bullet in a cubic-quintic nonlinear medium with a focusing cubic nonlinearity above a critical value and any defocusing quintic non-linearity is considered.
Journal ArticleDOI

Tomographic polarization analyzer by polarization-mode-frequency mapping.

TL;DR: A tomographic polarization analyzer is presented by polarization-mode-frequency mapping that can directly measure the Jones matrix of light with high accuracy due to the high-volume time sampling.
References
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Book

The physics of liquid crystals

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define an order parameter statistical theories of the nematic order phenomonological description of the nematic-isotopic mixtures and describe the properties of these mixtures.
Journal ArticleDOI

Orbital angular momentum of light and the transformation of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes.

TL;DR: Laser light with a Laguerre-Gaussian amplitude distribution is found to have a well-defined orbital angular momentum and an astigmatic optical system may be used to transform a high-order LaguERre- Gaussian mode into aHigh-order Hermite-Gaussia mode reversibly.
Journal ArticleDOI

Free-space information transfer using light beams carrying orbital angular momentum

TL;DR: The transfer of information encoded as orbital angular momentum states of a light beam is demonstrated, which is resistant to eavesdropping and gives an experimental insight into the effects of aperturing and misalignment of the beam on the OAM measurement and demonstrates the uncertainty relationship for OAM.
Journal ArticleDOI

Dislocations in wave trains

TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that dislocations are to be expected whenever limited trains of waves, ultimately derived from the same oscillator, travel in different directions and interfere -for example in a scattering problem.
Journal ArticleDOI

Direct Observation of Transfer of Angular Momentum to Absorptive Particles from a Laser Beam with a Phase Singularity

TL;DR: Black or reflective particles can be trapped in the dark central minimum of a doughnut laser beam produced using a high efficiency computer generated hologram to carry angular momentum transferred from the central phase singularity beam.
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