New multiplexed system for synchronous measurement of out-of-plane deformation and two orthogonal slopes

We propose a novel system for synchronous measurement of out-of-plane deformation and two orthogonal slopes using a single camera. The linearly polarized reference beam introduced by an optical fiber interferes with the unpolarized object beam to measure the out-of-plane deformation. A modified Mach—Zehnder interferometer is used to measure the two orthogonal slopes of the out-of-plane deformation. One of the object beams of the Mach—Zehnder interferometer is an unpolarized beam, and the other object beam is split into two orthogonal linearly polarized object beams by a polarizing prism. The two beams are orthogonally polarized. Hence, they will not interfere with each other. The two polarized beams respectively interfere with the unpolarized beam to simultaneously measure the two orthogonal slopes of the out-of-plane deformation. In addition, the imaging lens and apertures are respectively placed in three optical paths to independently control the carrier frequencies and shearing amounts. The effectiveness of this method can be proved by measuring two pressure-loaded circular plates.     

非均匀关联径向偏振部分相干光的产生

从理论和实验两方面对非均匀关联径向偏振部分相干光的产生进行了研究.理论上,基于相位关联与相干度的联系,推导出了非均匀关联径向偏振部分相干光的2×2阶交叉谱密度矩阵及相干度分布.实验上,利用一个相位型液晶空间光调制器的不同区域,对入射的完全相干的径向偏振光的两个正交偏振分量分别加载随机相位调制,并实验测量了这种光束的相干度分布及其对光强分布的影响.实验结果验证了光束相干度的非均匀关联结构,并且通过改变随机相位的高斯调制半宽可以改变光束的相干性分布.研究表明,随着随机相位的高斯调制半宽的增加,光束中两点间的相干度逐渐减小,其光强分布由圆环状逐渐变化为类平顶的光强分布.这种非均匀关联的径向偏振部分相干光在激光微操纵和材料加工等领域具有一定的潜在应用价值.     

Stokes beams formed by superposition of a completely unpolarized and a completely polarized Gaussian Schell-model beam

Analytic expressions and computed examples are given to elucidate the coherence and polarization properties of Stokes beams, i.e. beams formed by superposition of a completely unpolarized and a completely polarized electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beam. We found that superposition of such two beams cannot form a Stokes beam with a constant state of polarization on propagation. An additional constraint on the source plane parameters of the two Gaussian Schell-model beams is proposed. The resultant Stokes beam with a constant state of polarization on propagation is found to be a Gaussian Schell-model beam with the same variances as the two constituent Gaussian Schell-model beams. However, the modulus of the Gaussian intensity distributions across the source planes of these beams may be different.     

Generation of high power and high stability azimuthally polarized beams in a Nd:YAG laser

Generation of high stability and high power azimuthally polarized beams is demonstrated in a Nd:YAG laser by inserting an optimum aperture in the cavity. The location and the size of the aperture are optimized by analyzing the mode-radius, stability and mode selectivity of the cavity with a transfer matrix method. Experiments are performed in a Nd:YAG laser with a flat-flat resonator, and the results are concordant with the theoretical predictions. A 10 W azimuthally polarized beam with the standard deviation of the output power less than 0.6% is obtained.     

A novel orthogonal polarized dual-frequency laser using a Y-shaped cavity

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel dual-frequency He-Ne laser based on a Y-shaped cavity. The laser uses a polarization beam splitter to produce two orthogonal polarized beams that oscillate simultaneously in different sub-cavities. The different optical lengths of the cavities produce two longitudinal mode series with different mode spacing. In our experiments, a frequency difference between two orthogonal polarized lights ranging from 26 to 665 MHz was observed by changing the voltage applied to the piezoelectric transducer attached to the mirror of P polarized sub-cavity. The lock-in frequency difference is about 26 MHz. The competing processes were also investigated.     

超短脉冲径向偏振光束的解析解及时空耦合效应

从超短脉冲光束的傍轴传输方程出发, 运用傅里叶变换和相关数学算符的对易性, 得到了超短脉冲径向偏振光束的解析表达式.该解可适用于任意脉冲驱动的径向偏振光束. 基于该解析表达式并结合具体例子,讨论了超短脉冲径向偏振光束在自由空间中的传输性质. 结果表明, 在传输过程中时空耦合主要体现在光束边沿的脉冲延迟. 这一效应导致了脉冲不同时间位置处横向光强分布随传输的变化, 以及脉冲前后沿关于束腰的不对称性. 本文的方法同样适用于得到超短脉冲方位角偏振光束的解析解和传输性质.     

The Imbert-Fedorov shift of paraxial light beams

We present a solution to the problem of reflection and transmission of a polarized paraxial light beam at an interface between two homogeneous media by using a two-form amplitude and an extension matrix to represent the vectorial angular spectrum of a three-dimensional (3D) light beam. We derive general formulas for the Imbert-Fedorov (IF) shift of the reflected and transmitted beams of a polarized paraxial light beam. The IF shift of two different types of polarized beams is calculated, and the influence of the polarization state and the polarization feature of the vectorial angular spectrum on the IF shift is discussed.     

External-cavity birefringence feedback effects of microchip Nd:YAG laser and its application in angle measurement

External-cavity birefringence feedback effects of the microchip Nd:YAG laser are presented. When a birefringence element is placed in the external feedback cavity of the laser, two orthogonally polarized laser beams with a phase difference are output. The phase difference is twice as large as the phase retardation in the external cavity along the two orthogonal directions. The variable extra-cavity birefringence, caused by rotation of the external-cavity birefringence element, results in tunable phase difference between the two orthogonally polarized beams. This means that the roll angle information has been translated to phase difference of two output laser beams. A theoretical analysis based on the Fabry--Perot cavity equivalent model and refractive index ellipsoid is presented, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. This phenomenon has potential applications for roll angle measurement.     

Partially polarized fields generated by constant-amplitude (non-thermal) beams

The necessity for polarization-tensors of higher order than the 2×2 polarization matrix is clearly demonstrated, by considering two inequivalent situations arising from the superposition of two constant-amplitude beams with a random phase difference between them. The partially- and unpolarized fields from the superposition of two circularly polarized beams show no anisotropy in intensity fluctuations when viewed by a plane-polarized detector. This is not the case for the partially- and even the unpolarized beam formed from two plane-polarized beams. In passing, thesimple form of the polarization curve observed by a rotatable plane-polarized detector subject to an elliptically polarized beam, is derived.     

Effect of polarization on efficiency of volume Bragg grating filter

<正>Diffraction efficiency of volume Bragg grating,whose period is in the same order as the incident wavelength, is related to the polarization direction of the incident linear polarized beam.When two linearly polarized recording beams with the same polarization direction are used for recording volume Bragg gratings in a photopolymer with diffusion amplification,the azimuth of polarization of the reconstruction beam influences the diffraction efficiency of the grating.When the probe beam is linearly polarized and oriented orthogonally to the grating vectors,the±1-order diffraction beams are also linearly polarized with polarization direction parallel to that of the probe beam.According to the results,a two-dimensional nonspatial optical filter consisting of the volume Bragg gratings would achieve significantly higher efficiency.     

Interference of circularly polarized light: contrast and application in fabrication of three-dimensional periodic microstructures

The contrast of interference pattern formed by two circularly polarized waves and by a linearly polarized wave and a circularly polarized one is discussed. The results are compared with that by two linear beams. It shows that the use of circular light in holographic fabrication of three-dimensional periodic microstructures may remove the necessity of beam ratio and polarization optimization needed in the interference of three linear noncoplanar beams and improve the uniform contrast of resultant pattern simultaneously.     

Polarization squeezing with cold atoms

We study the interaction of a nearly resonant linearly polarized laser beam with a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a high finesse optical cavity. We show theoretically and experimentally that the cross-Kerr effect due to the saturation of the optical transition produces quadrature squeezing on both the mean field and the orthogonally polarized vacuum mode. An interpretation of this vacuum squeezing as polarization squeezing is given and a method for measuring quantum Stokes parameters for weak beams via a local oscillator is developed.     

Characterizing polarization properties of radially polarized beams

In the present work two methods of characterizing polarization properties of well-known radially polarized beams are discussed in both theoretical aspect and experimental aspect. A rotating linear polarizer used behind the beam is known to be used to qualitatively characterize the polarization properties of a radially polarized beam. In this paper for the first time we give the mathematic model of this characterization process. The proposed model helps to analyze the known experimental results. On the other hand two global parameters have been previously proved to be used to characterize the linear or circular polarization content of the radially polarized beams. In this paper for the first time we propose the theoretical model of determining the two parameters in experiments. Some experimental results on characterizing the polarization properties of the real radially polarized beam produced by using different approaches are shown.     

大数值孔径光子筛偏振特性研究

根据角谱理论建立不同偏振照明条件下的光子筛矢量衍射模型。在此基础上,对入射光分别为线偏振光、径向偏振光、切向偏振光三种特殊偏振状态下的光子筛聚焦光强分布进行了模拟分析。研究结果表明,对于大数值孔径光子筛,入射光的偏振特性将对光子筛聚焦光强分布产生巨大影响。线偏振光将使聚焦光斑沿偏振方向拉伸,切向偏振光产生的聚焦光斑具有"中空"结构,而径向偏振光所产生的聚焦光斑呈较为规则的圆形,且其焦深优于线偏照明情况。在激光直写及高分辨成像等光子筛典型应用中采用径向偏振照明将进一步提高系统分辨力。     

Generation of azimuthally and radially polarized beams by coherent polarization beam combination

A new architecture for generating pure azimuthally and radially polarized beams is presented. It involves coherent polarization beam combination of two orthogonally polarized LP(11) fiber modes. Experimental results reveal that high purely polarized (polarization purity of 95% or better) azimuthal and radial beams can be generated.     

Focal field computation of an arbitrarily polarized beam using fast Fourier transforms

In this work the vectorial diffraction theory of Richards and Wolf is extended to compute the focal field components of an arbitrarily polarized beam using fast Fourier transform (FFT) operations. Here the arbitrarily polarized pupil function is written as the vector sum of two mutually perpendicularly polarized pupil functions. The FFT based focal field expressions are particularly useful to compute the focal field components of pupil functions without a simple analytical form. We have then applied these expressions to simulate the effects of Zernike mode aberrations on the point spread functions of a number of important cylindrical-vector beam profiles such as radially and azimuthally polarized and helical light beams.     

双色激光偏振演示实验

利用红色和绿色激光束产生2束偏振方向分别平行及垂直于入射面的偏振光,再混合为1束光.通过缓慢改变光束的偏振结构及其与入射透明介质的夹角,使反射与透射光斑颜色及明暗发生变化,演示了马吕斯定律、菲涅耳关系和布儒斯特定律等光的偏振性质.     

Experimental verification on tightly focused radially polarized vortex beams

The theoretical and experimental results of tightly focused radially polarized vortex beams are demonstrated. An auto-focus technology is introduced into the measurement system in order to enhance the measurement precision, and the radially polarized vortex beams are generated by a liquid-crystal polarization converter and a vortex phase plate. The focused fields of radially polarized vortex beams with different topological charges at numerical apertures （NAs） of 0.65 and 0.85 are measured respectively, and the results indicate that the total intensity distribution at focus is dependent not only on the NA of the focusing objective lens and polarization pattern of the beam but also on the topological charge l of the beam. Some unique focusing properties of radially polarized vortex beams with fractional topological charges are presented based on numerical calculations. The experimental verification paves the way for some practical applications of radially polarized vortex beams, such as in optical trapping, near-field microscopy, and material processing.     

Electron acceleration using two crossed Bessel beams in vacuum

The direct acceleration of electrons by using two crossed linearly polarized Bessel beams with equal frequency and amplitude in vacuum is studied and compared with the case of single linearly polarized Bessel beam. It is found that two zeroth- and first-order Bessel beams with π-rad phase difference have a nonvanishing longitudinal electric field on the z-axis, which can be maximized under certain conditions and used to accelerate electrons. Two crossed zeroth- and first-order Bessel beams have a larger maximum longitudinal electric field on the z-axis than that of a single first-order Bessel beam, and are suited for laser electron acceleration.     

附加球面相位引致Airy光束在单轴晶体传输时的两次镜像演化

利用单轴晶体光束传输理论,求得了具有附加球面相位Airy光束在单轴晶体中的传输公式.数值模拟计算结果表明,线偏振附加球面相位Airy光束在晶体中传输时仍为线偏振,但不是传输不变的.粗略地讲,具有附加球面相位的Airy光束在晶体中传输时,近场是传输不变的;而在由晶体寻常与非寻常折射率和球面半径共同确定的两个特定传输距离处,传输光束转换成了取向不同的Gaussian-Airy光束,且高斯依赖的束宽度敏感地与截断因子相关;而当光束依次穿过此两位置时光斑花样先后相对于两横向轴平面做镜像演化,且镜像演化顺序也与晶体寻常和非寻常折射率相对大小密切相关,其总的效果是远场强度花样能恢复原样但花样取向产生了关于对过横平面二、四象限平分平面的镜像演化.这些结果表明,通过恰当选择晶体材料(即折射率)和附加球面相位的半径R,可以调控光束花样的形状、取向及表征各向异性材料的相关性质.