Focusing of Partially Coherent Vortex Beams by an Aperture Lens

The focusing properties of partially coherent vortex wave fields are studied. Expressions are derived for the intensity distribution and the degree of coherence near the geometrical focus. It is found that the size of coherence vortex dark core in the focal region depends on the topological charges and normalized coherence lengths. It is found that the desired vortex dark core near the geometrical focus can be generated by choosing appropriate values of parameters. The degree of coherence possesses a pair of phase singularities regions in the geometrical focus neighbourhood.     

四个部分相干点源的完全相消干涉特性

使用部分相干光的干涉定律,对部分相干光照明呈正方形对称四孔干涉仪的干涉场做了研究.结果表明,一定条件下,可出现完全相消干涉,并存在光强和光谱相干度的相位奇点.与二个、三个部分相干点源的干涉做了比较.对所得结果物理上可解释为：虽然四个点源是部分相干的,但从两个点源出射场之和与从另外两个点源出射场之和却可能是完全相关的. 关键词： 相关奇点光学 完全相消干涉 部分相干光 刃型位错线     

Topological structure in polarization resolved conoscopic patterns for nematic liquid crystal cells

We investigate the polarization structure of coherent light, produced by a convergent light beam transmitted through nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells with different director configurations. Employing solutions to the transmission problem for the case when plane wave propagates through an anisotropic layer, we analyze the arrangement of the topological elements, such as polarization singularities (C points with circular polarization and L lines with linear polarization), saddle points and extrema of polarization azimuth. We observe transformations of the topological structure under the variation of the incident light ellipticity and represent it by corresponding trajectories of topological elements in three-dimensional space. For the cells with uniform and non-uniform director configuration we describe the processes of creation/annihilation of C point pairs, which can be controlled precisely in the case of the cell with non-uniform director. Our experimental measurements for the homeotropically oriented NLC cells are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Topological reactions of optical correlation vortices

It is now well-appreciated that the correlation functions of partially coherent optical wavefields may possess phase singularities with properties similar to those that appear in monochromatic wavefields. Though much work has been done to investigate the generic properties of such correlation vortices, little effort has gone towards studying topological reactions associated with these vortices. In this paper we investigate three such reactions: (1) The break-up of a second-order optical vortex into first-order correlation vortices. (2) Creation and annihilation of correlation vortices. (3) The behavior of correlation vortices on propagation. These results clearly demonstrate the relationship between optical vortices and correlation vortices, and suggest the possible use of correlation vortices as a probe of the statistical properties of a field or a medium.     

Experimental study of coherence vortices: local properties of phase singularities in a spatial coherence function

By controlling the irradiance of an extended quasimonochromatic, spatially incoherent source, an optical field is generated that exhibits spatial coherence with phase singularities, called coherence vortices. A simple optical geometry for direct visualization of coherence vortices is proposed, and the local properties and the spatial evolution of coherence vortex are experimentally investigated. To our knowledge, this is the first direct and quantitative experimental measurement of a generic coherence vortex.     

Transverse energy flows in vectorial fields of paraxial beams with singularities

A general study of transverse energy flows (TEF) as physically meaningful and informative characteristics of paraxial light beams’ spatial structure is presented. The total TEF can be decomposed into the spin and orbital contributions giving rise to the spin and orbital angular momentums, correspondingly. Definitions and properties of these constituents are discussed in relation with the optical field representation through linear and circular orthogonal polarization bases. With the help of model examples, the results are applied to investigation of TEF singularities in connection with the usual polarization morphology characteristics of paraxial optical fields. An analysis of TEFs near singular points has been carried out; in particular, the behavior of TEF and its partial contributions near polarization singularities (C-points) has demonstrated the special role of a boundary flow in the origin of the spin angular momentum. The analytical and experimental applicability of the introduced concepts are discussed.     

Topological Properties of Spatial Coherence Function

The topological properties of the spatial coherence function are investigated rigorously. The phase singular structures （coherence vortices） of coherence function can be naturally deduced from the topological current, which is an abstract mathematical object studied previously. We find that coherence vortices are characterized by the Hopf index and Brouwer degree in topology. The coherence flux quantization and the linking of the closed coherence vortices are also studied from the topological properties of the spatial coherence function.     

A temporal-coherence anisotropy of unpolarized light

We analyze the anisotropic behavior of unpolarized, temporally partially coherent light. We demonstrate that unpolarized light with different intrinsic degrees of coherence can present an anisotropic behavior which is experimentally observable while it is not the case if both intrinsic degrees are equal. This behavior is analyzed in comparison with the standard anisotropy property of partially polarized light.     

Generation of optical vortices with arbitrary shape and array via helical phase spatial filtering

We report a method for generation of arbitrary shape and array of optical vortices by use of a superposition of coherent elementary vortices based on helical phase spatial filtering in spatial frequency domain. In this method, a helical phase spatial filter (HPSF) is placed in the spatial frequency plane of a 4-f imaging processing system. We demonstrated that the output field distribution represents the convolution between the input field and an elementary vortex field introduced by the HPSF, which results in a special shape or array of optical vortices determined by the “degenerate” properties of coherent elementary vortices and the distribution formats of the input field.     

Current-driven transformations of a skyrmion tube and a bobber in stepped nanostructures of chiral magnets

It has been over 30 years since the concept of optical vortices was first proposed by Coullet et al.in 1989,and the field of structured beams has grown extremely.In the last two decades,partially coherent vortex beams(PCVBs)have received increasing interest in the fields of optical manipulation,optical communication,optical imaging,etc.,and great progress has been made in the area of the coherence singularities,generation methods,topological charge measurements,and promising applications of PCVBs.In this review,we firstly outline the basic concepts of PCVBs.We explicate the relationship between the coherence vortices and optical vortices,and the evolution behavior of optical vortices to coherence vortices is summarized in detail.We discuss a special form of coherence singularity,ring dislocation,mathematically and physically.The ring dislocation in the correlation functions under low coherence is dependent on the mode indices,which provide a feasible approach to measure mode indices of PCVBs.Subsequently,we summarize the various methods for measuring the topological charge of PCVBs,highlight the measurement method based on the cross-correlation function,and a physical explanation on the relation between ring dislocation and topological charge is given.After that,we review the recent advances on experimental generation of several kinds of PCVBs.Lastly,we give an overview on the potential applications of PCVBs.     

Spatial coherence of an optical turbulent beam in a biased photorefractive crystal due to the spatiotemporal modulation instability

We report the experimental observation of the dynamic pattern formation of a broad coherent light beam in a biased photorefractive crystal due to the spatiotemporal modulation instability. When the nonlinearity exceeds a specific threshold, the coherent light beam not only breaks up into light spots due to the modulation instability but also fast fluctuates both spatially and temporally, forming an optical turbulent beam, which behaves as a quasi-homogeneous speckled beam or a partially incoherent beam. We investigate the spatial coherence property of an optical turbulent beam from the visibility of the averaged double-slit interference fringe. We also numerically demonstrate the visibility variation of the instantaneous interference fringe of an optical turbulent beam.     

Flat-topped spectrum obtained from partially coherent hollow Gaussian Schell-model beams passing through a slit

The anomalous spectral behaviors of partially coherent polychromatic hollow Gaussian Schell-model beams (HGSMBs) diffracted by a slit are investigated. Besides spectral switches, asymmetrical dual-peak spectral split and multi-peak spectral split are observed. In the vicinity of the positions where spectral switches occur, flat-topped spectrum can be obtained, the bandwidth of which is adjustable by changing the transverse coherence width and the observation position. The flat-topped spectrum has potential application for creating probe beams in optical metrology systems and generating broadband optical sources in fiber optic sensor interface systems.     

New effects in Young's interference experiment with partially coherent light

We analyze the coherence properties of a partially coherent optical field emerging from two pinholes in a plane opaque screen. We show that at certain pairs of points in the region of superposition the light is fully coherent, regardless of the state of coherence of the light at the pinholes. In particular, this result also holds if each pinhole is illuminated by a different laser.     

Partially coherent vortex beams propagation in a turbulent atmosphere

Based on the Rytov approximation and the cross-spectral density approximation for the mutual coherence function of the partially coherent field, the propagation properties of the partially coherent beams with optical vortices in turbulent atmosphere are discussed. The average intensity and the mutual coherence function of the partially coherent vortex beams propagation in weak turbulent atmosphere are obtained.It is shown that the vortex structure of the average cross-spectral density of partially coherent beams has the same helicoidally shape as that of the phase of the fully coherent Laguerre-Gauss beams in free space and the relative intensity of the beam is degraded by optical vortex.     

Coherence vortices of partially coherent beams in the far field

Based on the propagation law of cross-spectral density function, studied in this paper are the coherence vortices of partially coherent, quasi-monochromatic singular beams with Gaussian envelope and Schell-model correlator in the far field, where our main attention is paid to the evolution of far-field coherence vortices into intensity vortices of fully coherent beams. The results show that, although there are usually no zeros of intensity in partially coherent beams with Gaussian envelope and Schell-model correlator, zeros of spectral degree of coherence exist. The coherence vortices of spectral degree of coherence depend on the relative coherence length, mode index and positions of pairs of points. If a point and mode index are kept fixed, the position of coherence vortices changes with the increase of the relative coherence length. For the low coherent case there is a circular phase dislocation. In the coherent limit coherence vortices become intensity vortices of fully coherent Laguerre--Gaussian beams.     

大气湍流对部分相干厄米-高斯光束空间相干性的影响

基于广义惠更斯-菲涅耳原理,并采用Rytov相位结构函数二次近似,推导出了部分相干厄米-高斯(H-G)光束通过大气湍流传输的光谱相干度公式,研究了湍流对光束的空间相干特性的影响.研究表明,部分相干H-G光束通过大气湍流传输其光谱相干度会出现振荡和相位奇异现象,但随着湍流的增强,振荡减弱,直至振荡和相位奇异现象消失,这一特性与高斯-谢尔模型光束的差异很大.光束的相干参数越小,光束空间相干性受湍流的影响也越小.此外,还研究了光谱相干度二阶矩宽度与光谱强度二阶矩宽度间的关系,得到一些有意义的结果,并给出了合理的 关键词： 部分相干厄米-高斯光束 大气湍流 光谱相干度 二阶矩宽度     

Measuring temporal fluctuation on femtosecond scale in a random medium

We report an observation of femtosecond optical fluctuations of transmitted light when a coherent femtosecond pulse propagates through a random medium. They are a result of random interference among scattered waves coming from different trajectories in the time domain. Temporal fluctuations are measured by using cross-correlated frequency optical gating. It is shown that a femtosecond pulse will be broadened and distorted in pulse shape while it is propagating in random medium. The real and imaginary components of transmitted electric field are also distorted severely. The average of the fluctuated transmission pulses yields a smooth profile, probability functions show good agreement with Gaussian distribution.     

Electromagnetic fields that remain totally polarized under propagation

It is remarked that, in general, a totally polarized field becomes partially polarized at the output of an optical system, even though the field propagates through non-polarizing devices. Two kinds of fields are shown in the present work, which maintain the totally-polarized character at the output of any (deterministic) non-polarizing first-order optical system. This property is satisfied by uniformly totally polarized beams and also by those fields whose electromagnetic degree of coherence [T. Setälä, J. Tervo, A.T. Friberg, Opt. Lett. 29 (2004) 328.] equals 1.     

Partially coherent anomalous hollow beam and its paraxial propagation

Anomalous hollow beam is extended to the partially coherent case. Analytical propagation formulae for a partially coherent anomalous hollow beam passing through a paraxial ABCD optical system are derived. The propagation properties of a partially coherent anomalous hollow beam in free space and the focusing properties of a partially coherent anomalous hollow beam are studied numerically. It is found that the propagation and focusing properties of the partially coherent anomalous hollow beam are closely related to its initial coherence.     

用于实现散射介质中时间反演的数字相位共轭的相干性

抑制散射介质对光的散射,调控光在散射介质中的传输,是光通信、生物光子学、光镊等领域的重要课题.设计并实现了基于宽谱光源和数字相位共轭的可调控光在散射介质中传输的时间反演实验系统.实验获取了不同相干长度下物光和参考光束之间的光程差与干涉图样、相位图及时间反演信号之间的关系,分析了光源相干性对调控光在散射介质中传输的影响.实验结果表明,基于宽谱光源的相干特性和数字相位共轭技术,通过调节光程差能选择性获取同一散射角度及相同传输路径的光束的相对相位,再利用空间光调制器对参考光束进行调控,实现光束的反向传播,从而选择性实现对同一散射角度及相同传输路径的光的时间反演.