固体介质中光速减慢研究的若干进展

首先介绍了光速减慢的物理理论基础与实现方法以及国内外光速减慢研究的进展概况．主要阐述了均匀加宽介质中的光谱烧孔理论以及借助光谱烧孔技术在红宝石晶体中实现光速减慢的实验．最后，就极慢光速研究的前景及研究意义进行了讨论．     

Slow light pulse propagation in dispersive media

We present a theoretical and numerical analysis of pulse propagation in a semiconductor photonic crystal waveguide with embedded quantum dots in a regime where the pulse is subjected to both waveguide and material dispersion. The group index and the transmission are investigated by finite-difference-time-domain Maxwell–Bloch simulations and compared to analytic results. For long pulses the group index (transmission) for the combined system is significantly enhanced (reduced) relative to slow light based on purely material or waveguide dispersion. Shorter pulses are strongly distorted and depending on parameters broadening or break-up of the pulse may be observed. The transition from linear to nonlinear pulse propagation is quantified in terms of the spectral width of the pulse. To cite this article: T.R. Nielsen et al., C. R. Physique 10 (2009).     

Propagation of light through a forbidden zone in chiral media

The particular features of the propagation of light in uniaxial chiral liquid crystals with a large pitch of the spiral are considered. There exist forbidden zones in these systems for fairly large angles of incidence of an extraordinary ray. On the one hand, this results in an efficient reflection of the wave from the zone boundary, and, on the other hand, this causes the wave to decay inside the zone. A case of narrow forbidden zones is studied, and it is shown that optical effects that arise upon propagation of rays near turning points are equivalent to the tunnel and over-barrier reflection effects. The angular dependences of the intensities of rays that were refracted in a forbidden zone and transmitted through it are calculated. The percolation effect is experimentally studied in a mixture of a nematic liquid crystal with a chiral addition. The intensity of a transmitted extraordinary ray is studied as a function of the angle of incidence, which determines the width of the forbidden zone. Both the over-barrier reflection and the percolation effects are observed. The calculation results are shown to agree with experiment.     

On a fourth-order wave equation for EM propagation in chiral media

A fourth-order wave equation is derived to study the propagation of an electromagnetic (EM) wave in a medium composed of chiral objects. This approximate wave equation does not reflect the handedness of the medium directly, which is more readily apparent, however, in a pair of two coupled second-order wave equations obtaineden route.     

Diffraction and propagation of electromagnetic waves in the presence of chiral media

The propagation of electromagnetic waves in infinite, semiinfinite, and laminar chiral structures is investigated, along with the diffraction of electromagnetic waves on semiinfinite objects in a chiral medium and three-dimensional objects consisting entirely or partially of chiral materials. Particular attention is paid to diffraction on three-dimensional uniform chiral bodies and ideally conducting bodies covered by chiral shells. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 8, pp. 50–61, August, 1998.     

Enhancement of spatial coherence during light propagation in bounded media

The spatial coherence of thermal light propagated through passive bounded media is measured. It is found that specular reflection at the boundaries enhances the degree of coherence. This result has considerable implications for the spatial coherence of light from laser and amplified spontaneous emission (A.S.E.) systems.     

Features of propagation of laser radiation in media with small-scale periodic inhomogeneities

The problem of laser-radiation propagation in media with small-scale periodic phase inhomogeneities is considered analytically. Relying on our analytical treatment and numerical calculations performed in the diffraction approximation, we demonstrate the effect of periodic self-reproduction of the field structure of radiation during its propagation in media with small-scale periodic inhomogeneities, which is similar to the Talbot effect in a homogeneous medium.     

Peculiarities of light propagation in chiral liquid crystal cells in an external electric field

We investigate the propagation of the extraordinary ray in a cell with a chiral liquid crystal at oblique incidence. For a 180° twist cell, we study the dependence of the minimum incidence angle at which the light does not yet pass through the cell on the applied voltage. The orientational structure of a liquid crystal in an external electric field has been calculated by directly minimizing the free energy. This has allowed the ray trajectories and the limiting refraction angles to be determined. The results of our calculations are consistent with the experiment. We show that allowance for the electric field nonuniformity in a chiral system is important for agreement between theory and experiment.     

Polarisation dependence of photon antibunching phenomena involving light propagation in isotropic media

By the method of “short optical paths”, the dynamics of photon antibunching is shown to depend on the polarisation state of the photons and their two-photon absorption in an isotropic medium. In the case of self-induced optical birefringence, a change in helicity of the elliptically polarized beam or a change in sign of the angle between the large semi-axis of the ellipse and the analyzer causes a reversal of antibunching into bunching. Linear and circular polarisation of the photons are discussed as well for antibunching related with two-photon absorption, defined by the imaginary part of the molecular hyperpolarizability tensor.     

Features of light absorption in chiral photonic crystals with a strong local anisotropy

The interaction of light with a layer of a chiral photonic crystal is considered. Features of the Borrmann effect at a strong anisotropy are studied. The natural polarizations are considered, and it is shown that in the limit δ << 1 (δ = (?₁ ? ?₂)/(?₁ + ?₂), where ?₁ and ?₂ are the principal values of the dielectric permittivity tensor in the plane perpendicular to the medium axis) these polarizations are orthogonal and quasi-circular, while in the limit δ >> 1 they are orthogonal but linearly polarized. It is established that in the general case the chiral photonic crystals show a complete selectivity not to the circular polarizations (as at δ << 1), but to the natural polarizations.     

Analysis of light propagation in highly scattering media by path-length-assigned Monte Carlo simulations

Numerical analysis of optical propagation in highly scattering media is investigated when light is normally incident to the surface and re-emerges backward from the same point. This situation corresponds to practical light scattering setups, such as in optical coherence tomography. The simulation uses the path-length-assigned Monte Carlo method based on an ellipsoidal algorithm. The spatial distribution of the scattered light is determined and the dependence of its width and penetration depth on the path-length is found. The backscattered light is classified into three types, in which ballistic, snake, and diffuse photons are dominant.     

Voxel classification methodology for rapid Monte Carlo simulation of light propagation in complex media

Monte Carlo (MC) method is a statistical method for simulating photon propagation in media in the optical molecular imaging field.However,obtaining an accurate result using the method is quite time-consuming,especially because the boundary of the media is complex.A voxel classification method is proposed to reduce the computation cost.All the voxels generated by dividing the media are classified into three types (outside,boundary,and inside) according to the position of the voxel.The classified information is used to determine the relative position of the photon and the intersection between photon path and media boundary in the MC method.The influencing factors and effectiveness of the proposed method are analyzed and validated by simulation experiments.     

复数折射率介质中光束传输的Schrodinger形式理论研究

将复数折射率介质的Helmholtz方程化为具有复数势能的Schredinger方程的形式,用进化算子的逆算子代替相应的共轭算子,定义了与实数折射率系统光束传输参数具有相似性质的力学量的复数平均值,证明复数光束质量因子守恒是复数ABCD定律成立的充要条件.利用推广的Heisenberg图象,从复数光束传输参数的进化方程得到了位置算子和动量算子的线性进化方程,进一步利用量子力学的表象和表示理论得到了一般复数ABCD系统的Huygens积分.     

Solutions for the propagation of light in nonlinear optical media with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities

In this paper, we present solutions for the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities describing propagation of light in nonlinear media, under two sets of transverse modulation forms of inhomogeneous nonlinearity. The bright soliton solution and Gaussian solution have been obtained for one set of inhomogeneous nonlinearity modulation. For the other, bright soliton solution, black soliton solution and the train solution have been presented. Stability of the solutions has been determined by exact soliton solutions under certain conditions.     

Electromagnetic-wave scattering from chiral spheres in chiral media

Summary The scattering of electromagnetic waves in chiral (optically active) media from chiral spheres is studied. Mie-scattering techniques are used to find the exact solution for plane-electromagnetic-wave scattering from a chiral sphere of arbitrary size in an infinitely extended chiral medium of arbitrarily different permeability, permittivity, and chirality, and the scattering and extinction efficiencies for chiral spheres in chiral media are derived. Special cases of achiral exterior medium-chiral sphere and achiral exterior medium-achiral scatterer are considered and in the latter case well-known results of Mie scattering are recovered. Simplified results for small spheres are also found for the limit of Rayleigh scattering.