Accelerating light beams along arbitrary convex trajectories

We demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, nonbroadening optical beams propagating along any arbitrarily chosen convex trajectory in space. We present a general method to construct such beams, and demonstrate it by generating beams following polynomial and exponential trajectories. We find that all such beams, accelerating along any convex trajectory, display the same universal intensity cross section, irrespective of their acceleration. The universal features of these beams are explored using catastrophe theory.     

Generation of helical Ince-Gaussian beams with a liquid-crystal display

We generate helical Ince-Gaussian (HIG) beams by using complex amplitude and phase masks encoded onto a liquid-crystal display (LCD). These beams display an intensity pattern consisting of elliptic rings, whose number and ellipticity can be controlled, and a phase exhibiting a number of in-line vortices, each with a unitary topological charge. We show experimental results that display the properties of these elliptic dark hollow beams. We introduce a novel interference technique for generating the object and reference beams by using a single LCD and show the vortex interference patterns. We expect that these HIG beams will be useful in optical trapping applications.     

Quadrant detector calibration for vortex beams

This Letter reports an experimental and theoretical study of the response of a quadrant detector (QD) to an incident vortex beam, specifically a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam. We have found that the LG beam response depends on the vorticity index ?. We compare LG beams with hard-ringed beams and find that at higher ? values, the QD response to LG beams can be approximated by its response to hard-ringed beams. Our findings are important in view of the increasing interest in optical vortex beams.     

Interfering Bessel beams for optical micromanipulation

We examine the properties of interfering high-order Bessel beams. We implement an experimental setup that allows us to realize these interferograms, using interfering Laguerre-Gaussian beams and an axicon. We demonstrate the use of such beams for controlled rotation of microscopic particles in optical tweezers and rotators. The self-healing properties of interfering Bessel beams allow the simultaneous manipulation and rotation of particles in spatially separated sample cells.     

Flexible generation of optical beams with quasicrystalline structures via astigmatism induced by a tilted lens

We theoretically show that a family of optical beams with vortex-lattice structures can be reliably generated by tilting the focal lens to introduce the relative phases between the interfering beams. We also experimentally generate the quasicrystal beams to confirm the theoretical analysis. With the analytical wave functions and experimental patterns, a variety of vortex-lattice structures are manifested.     

Automatic Fourier transform and self-Fourier beams due to parabolic potential

We investigate the propagation of light beams including Hermite–Gauss, Bessel–Gauss and finite energy Airy beams in a linear medium with parabolic potential. Expectedly, the beams undergo oscillation during propagation, but quite unexpectedly they also perform automatic Fourier transform, that is, periodic change from the beam to its Fourier transform and back. In addition to oscillation, the finite-energy Airy beams exhibit periodic inversion during propagation. The oscillating period of parity-asymmetric beams is twice that of the parity-symmetric beams. Based on the propagation in parabolic potential, we introduce a class of optically-interesting beams that are self-Fourier beams—that is, the beams whose Fourier transforms are the beams themselves.     

Super-Resolution of Interference Pattern with Independent Laser Beams

We propose a scheme to achieve super-resolution of interference pattern with independent laser beams. We perform an experimental observation of a double-slit interference with two orthogonally polarized laser beams. The resolution of the interference pattern measured by a two-photon detection is doubled provided the two beams illuminate the double-slit with certain incident angles. The scheme is simple and can favour both high intensity and perfect visibility.     

Dark and antidark diffraction-free beams

We present dark and antidark diffraction-free beams and discuss their properties. We show that all such beams must be partially spatially coherent. The new beams can be used for optical trapping of atoms.     

Circular beams

A very general beam solution of the paraxial wave equation in circular cylindrical coordinates is presented. We call such a field a circular beam (CiB). The complex amplitude of the CiB is described by either the Whittaker functions or the confluent hypergeometric functions and is characterized by three parameters that are complex in the most general situation. The propagation through complex ABCD optical systems and the conditions for square integrability are studied in detail. Special cases of the CiB are the standard, elegant, and generalized Laguerre-Gauss beams; Bessel-Gauss beams; hypergeometric beams; hypergeometric-Gaussian beams; fractional-order elegant Laguerre-Gauss beams; quadratic Bessel-Gauss beams; and optical vortex beams.     

Radially and azimuthally polarized beams generated by space-variant dielectric subwavelength gratings

We present a novel method for forming radially and azimuthally polarized beams by using computer-generated subwavelength dielectric gratings. The elements were deposited upon GaAs substrates and produced beams with a polarization purity of 99.2% at a wavelength of 10.6 microm . We have verified the polarization properties with full space-variant polarization analysis and measurement, and we show that such beams have certain vortexlike properties and that they carry angular momentum.     

Phase conjugation with gaussian beams

We investigate the saturation effects in phase conjugation in the case of gaussian beams. We derive analytical expressions for the phase conjugate reflectivity R_PC for arbitrary values of the pump beams. We show that the results can be drastically different from what is expected from a plane-wave analysis. At last, we show the influence of the overlapping of the three beams.     

Nondiffracting accelerating wave packets of Maxwell's equations

We present the nondiffracting spatially accelerating solutions of the Maxwell equations. Such beams accelerate in a circular trajectory, thus generalizing the concept of Airy beams to the full domain of the wave equation. For both TE and TM polarizations, the beams exhibit shape-preserving bending which can have subwavelength features, and the Poynting vector of the main lobe displays a turn of more than 90°. We show that these accelerating beams are self-healing, analyze their properties, and find the new class of accelerating breathers: self-bending beams of periodically oscillating shapes. Finally, we emphasize that in their scalar form, these beams are the exact solutions for nondispersive accelerating wave packets of the most common wave equation describing time-harmonic waves. As such, this work has profound implications to many linear wave systems in nature, ranging from acoustic and elastic waves to surface waves in fluids and membranes.     

Experimental investigation of criteria for continuous variable entanglement

We generate a pair of entangled beams from the interference of two amplitude squeezed beams. The entanglement is quantified in terms of EPR paradox and inseparability criteria, with both results clearly beating the standard quantum limit. We experimentally analyze the effect of decoherence on each criterion and demonstrate qualitative differences. We also characterize the number of required and excess photons present in the entangled beams and provide contour plots of the efficacy of quantum information protocols in terms of these variables.     

基于零级贝塞尔光束干涉产生的局域空心光束

通过对由两个零级贝塞尔光束相干叠加形成的三维衍射光场的理论分析和计算机模拟,发现当双零级贝塞尔光束的有关参量满足一定条件时,会在光轴上形成一系列高质量的局域空心光束。在此基础上,进一步分析了这种阵列局域空心光束的大小、阵列周期及局域空心光束的质量与双零级贝塞尔光束和光路参量的定量关系。推导出双零级贝塞尔光束叠加时在中心暗斑位置达到完全干涉相消的条件是通过两个环缝的能量要相同,以及产生最佳局域空心光束的内外环缝光源半径的比值为0.465。该研究为进一步设计制备基于双零级贝塞尔光束干涉实现阵列局域空心光束的新型衍射光学元件提供了理论依据和设计参量。     

4Pi focusing of spatially modulated radially polarized vortex beams

We propose a method for generating focal beams with special intensity distributions using radially polarized vortex beams in a 4Pi configuration. A spherical dark-hollow beam and hollow beam array can be obtained by vortex beams with topological charge of m=1. A dark channel can be generated using vortex beams with topological charge of m=2. The length of the well-defined hollow beam array and the dark channel is about 30λ. These interesting beams are useful in optical trapping and manipulation.     

Numerical evaluation of the intensity distribution of a multiple-beam Fizeau fringe in reflection at finite number of beams collected

We modified the intensity distribution formula in multiple-beam reflected system produced at infinite number of beams collected to be a function of finite number of beams collected. From the modified equation, a numerical process was performed to find a finite number of beams value that gives the same intensity at infinity. We claim that 30 beams are enough to produce the intensity distribution same as if infinity number of beams are collected. Our deductions were verified by numerically evaluating the intensity distribution of a multiple-beam Fizeau–Tolansky interferometer with a wedge angle = 0.0003164 rad using ray tracing at 30 number of beams collected and the results of simulation are consistent. The consistency signifies that using 30 instead of infinity number of beams collected in ray tracing for the intensity distribution evaluation may reduce the time drastically.     

EPR light beams and non-Gaussian quantum distributions in the time domain

We investigate time-dependent properties of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) light beams generated in nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator (NOPO) driven by a sequence of laser pulses with Gaussian time-dependent envelops. The peculiarities of EPR beams are discussed on the base of quadrature squeezing and also in the framework of phase-space Wigner functions for EPR beams which are combined on a half beam splitter. We also investigate the Wigner functions of intensity-correlated twin beams following the conditional photon state-preparation scheme. It is demonstrated that the Wigner functions involve negative values in parts of the phase space for the schemes with one-, two-, and three-photons.     

Non-linear and quantum optics of a type II OPO containing a birefringent element

We describe theoretically the quantum properties of a type-II Optical Parametric Oscillator containing a birefringent plate which induces a linear coupling between the orthogonally polarized signal and idler beams and results in phase locking between these two beams. As in a standard OPO, the signal and idler waves show large quantum correlations which can be measured experimentally due to the phase locking between the two beams. We study the influence of the waveplate on the various criteria characterizing quantum correlations. We show in particular that the quantum correlations can be maximized by using optimized quadratures.     

Ghost imaging with thermal light: comparing entanglement and classical correlation

We consider a scheme for coherent imaging that exploits the classical correlation of two beams obtained by splitting incoherent thermal radiation. This case is analyzed in parallel with the configuration based on two entangled beams produced by parametric down-conversion, and a precise formal analogy is pointed out. This analogy opens the possibility of using classical beams from thermal radiation for ghost imaging schemes in the same way as entangled beams.