Circular polarization

About: Circular polarization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 15201 publications have been published within this topic receiving 234418 citations.

Conversion between polarization states based on a metasurface

Abstract: Transmission of an anisotropic metasurface is analyzed in a polar base relying on the Jones calculus, and polarization conversion from the spatial uniform polarization to the spatial nonuniform polarization is explored. Simple and compact polarization converters based on rectangular holes or cross holes etched in silver film are designed, and polarization conversions from the linear and circular polarization to the radial and azimuthal polarization are realized. Numerical simulations of three designed polarization converters consisting of rectangular holes equivalent to polarizers and quarter- and half-wave plates, exhibit the perfect polarization conversion. The experiment results consistent with the simulations verify theoretic predictions. This study is helpful for designing metasurface polarization converters and expanding the application of a metasurface in polarization manipulations.

Circular Dichroism Imaging Microscopy: Application to Enantiomorphous Twinning in Biaxial Crystals of 1,8-Dihydroxyanthraquinone

Abstract: A microscope was constructed for imaging circular dichroism of heterogeneous anisotropic media. To avoid linear biases that are common with electronic circular polarization modulation, we chose a retrogressive solution: mechanical light modulation by rotating a linear polarizer with respect to a quarter wave plate continuously tuned by tilting to the operating wavelength. Our comparatively slow technique succeeds with near-perfect circular input and signal averaging using a CCD camera. We have applied the method to anomalously birefringent crystals of 1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone that are shown to have intergrown mirror image domains, undetected by X-ray diffraction because the twinning complexity renders differences in anomalous dispersion, already small, unreliable. The origin of the anomalous birefringence and the assignment of the absolute configuration are discussed.

A Subwavelength Element for Broadband Circularly Polarized Reflectarrays

Abstract: A subwavelength element is presented for designing a circularly polarized (CP) reflectarray that converts the linearly polarized incident field of the feed into an outgoing circularly polarized field. To evaluate the performance of the designed element, a parametric study is carried out using Ansoft HFSS. Compared to the conventional near-resonant patch, the subwavelength one can realize a more similar behavior for the phase curves at different frequencies, leading to broader bandwidth. The phase shifts for both linear polarizations can be controlled by varying the x- and y-dimension of the element. A prime-focus reflectarray with this type of element has been designed and implemented, and a superior bandwidth performance has been verified, compared to a reflectarray with conventional ?/2 elements. The measured results show that the obtained 1-dB gain and 3-dB axial ratio bandwidths of the reflectarray with subwavelength elements can reach as large as 17% and 11%, respectively.

Optical signatures of the tunable band gap and valley-spin coupling in silicene

Abstract: We investigate the optical response of silicene and similar materials, such as germanene, in the presence of an electrically tunable band gap for variable doping. The interplay of spin-orbit coupling, due to the buckled structure of these materials, and a perpendicular electric field gives rise to a rich variety of phases: a topological or quantum spin Hall insulator, a valley-spin-polarized metal, and a band insulator. We show that the dynamical conductivity should reveal signatures of these different phases which would allow for their identification along with the determination of parameters such as the spin-orbit energy gap. We find an interesting feature where the electric field tuning of the band gap might be used to switch on and off the Drude intraband response. Furthermore, in the presence of spin-valley coupling, the response to circularly polarized light as a function of frequency and electric field tuning of the band gap is examined. Using right- and left-handed circular polarization, it is possible to select a particular combination of spin and valley index. The frequency for this effect can be varied by tuning the band gap.

Quantum theory of the inverse Faraday effect

Abstract: We provide a quantum theoretical description of the magnetic polarization induced by intense circularly polarized light in a material. Such effect-commonly referred to as the inverse Faraday effect-is treated using beyond-linear response theory, considering the applied electromagnetic field as external perturbation. An analytical time-dependent solution of the Liouville-von Neumann equation to second order is obtained for the density matrix and used to derive expressions for the optomagnetic polarization. Two distinct cases are treated, the long-time adiabatic limit of polarization imparted by continuous wave irradiation, and the full temporal shape of the transient magnetic polarization induced by a short laser pulse. We further derive expressions for the Verdet constants for the inverse, optomagnetic Faraday effect and for the conventional, magneto-optical Faraday effect and show that they are in general different. Additionally, we derive expressions for the Faraday and inverse Faraday effects within the Drude-Lorentz theory and demonstrate that their equality does not hold in general, but only for dissipationless media. As an example, we perform initial quantum mechanical calculations of the two Verdet constants for a hydrogenlike atom and we extract the trends. We observe that one reason for a large inverse Faraday effect in heavy atoms is the spatial extension of the wave functions rather than the spin-orbit interaction, which nonetheless contributes positively.