Polarization singularities in 2D and 3D speckle fields

The 3D structure of randomly polarized light fields is exemplified by its polarization singularities: lines along which the polarization is purely circular (C lines) and surfaces on which the polarization is linear (L surfaces). We visualize these polarization singularities experimentally in vector laser speckle fields, and in numerical simulations of random wave superpositions. Our results confirm previous analytical predictions [M. R. Dennis, Opt. Commun. 213, 201 (2002)] regarding the statistical distribution of types of C points and relate their 2D properties to their 3D structure.     

Polarization singularities in partially coherent combined beams

Vector singularities are predicted and discovered experimentally in partially polarized combined fields formed by incoherent superposition of orthogonally polarized beams. Such singularities are U contours with zero degree of polarization and isolated P points with unit degree of polarization centered at vortices of the orthogonally polarized component of the combined beam. Crossing a U contour switches the polarization state to the orthogonal one. The above-mentioned singularities are adequately described in terms of the complex degree of polarization in the Stokes-space representation. It is shown that the field elements corresponding to the extrema of the complex degree of polarization form the vector skeleton of a partially coherent nonuniformly polarized field.     

Vector singularities of superposition of mutually incoherent orthogonally polarized beams

It is shown that, at an incoherent superposition of orthogonally polarized laser beams, a special type of singularities are formed in the cross section of a combined beam in place of the well-known singularities, such as optical vortices (for scalar fields); C points, at which the polarization is circular; and L lines, along which the polarization is linear (for coherent vector fields). These new singularities are U lines, along which the degree of polarization is zero and the state of polarization is undetermined, and P points, at which the degree of polarization is equal to unity and the state of polarization is determined by the nonzero component of the combined beam. Conditions of topological stability of U and P singularities are discussed, as well as peculiarities of the spatial distribution of the degree of polarization of the field in the vicinity of such singularities. First experimental results on the reconstruction of a vector skeleton formed by U and P singularities in combined speckle fields are presented.     

A cascade of singular field patterns in Young’s interference experiment

We analyze Young’s interference experiment for the case that two correlated, linearly polarized beams are used. It is shown that even when the incident fields are partially coherent, there are always correlation singularities (pairs of lines where the fields are completely uncorrelated) on the observation screen. These correlation singularities evolve in a non-trivial manner into dark lines (phase singularities in the paraxial approximation). The latter in turn each unfold into a triplet of polarization singularities, namely an L-line and two C-lines of opposite handedness.     

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.     

Nongeneric polarization singularities in combined vortex beams

Nongeneric polarization structures of singular beams formed as a coherent coaxial mixture of weighted orthogonally polarized single-charged Laguerre-Gauss modes with different radial indices are analyzed. A general solution for the superposition of elliptically orthogonally polarized partial vortex beams is obtained; the limiting special cases in which the mixed modes are linearly or circularly polarized are investigated. It is established that unusual spatially stable polarization structures such as closed C contours and L contours with a fixed azimuth of linear polarization arise in such combined beams. The results are experimentally confirmed by using a new diffraction method for testing phase singularities in optical beams.     

Second-harmonic generation of polarization singularities

Second-harmonic generation was studied theoretically for the vector singularities (daisy modes) of linearly polarized light and for the elliptic singularities (C points) of elliptically polarized light. Topological charge doubling for C points and daisy modes, similar to that found for vortices, was found. Unlike for vortices, however, it was found that for both C points and daisy modes the sign of the charge is reversed; for C points the photon spin or handedness (right or left) is also reversed; and for daisy modes the number of intensity petals is not doubled. These findings are all unexpected because neither charge nor spin nor orbital angular momentum is conserved for C points, whereas a daisy mode in which the number of intensity petals does not equal twice the magnitude of the charge is anomalous.     

部分相干刃型位错光束的谱Stokes奇点

利用交叉谱密度函数的传输公式,推导出部分相干刃型位错光束在自由空间中传输的解析表达式.结合谱Stokes参数,详细讨论了其Stokes场的奇点变化规律.结果表明,部分相干刃型位错光束在自由空间传输过程中存在谱s12,s23和s31奇点.改变刃型位错的离轴量、斜率、空间相关长度等光束参数以及随着传输距离的变化,会有谱Stokes奇点的移动、产生和湮没,也会有V点的产生和C点旋性的反转.     

Observation of spatially coherent polarization vector fields and visualization of vector singularities

We present experimental observations of polarization vector fields from a highly isotropic microchip laser with a large Fresnel number. The experimental polarization vector field leads to complex entanglement of spatial structures and polarization states. We theoretically derive the representation of generalized coherent states to reconstruct the experimental polarization-resolved patterns. The analytical and precise reconstruction enables the vector singularities to be clearly visualized.     

Polarization singularity democracy: WYSIWYG

The canonical point singularity of elliptically polarized light is a C point, an isolated point of circular polarization surrounded by a field of polarization ellipses. The defining singular property of a C point is that the surrounding ellipses rotate about the point. It is shown that this rotation is seen only for a particular line of sight (LOS) and, conversely, that there exists a unique LOS for every ellipse along which the ellipse is seen as a singularity. It is also shown that changes in LOS can turn singularities into stationary points and vice versa. The democratic behavior of polarization singularities and stationary points is a consequence of the fundamental "what you see is what you get" property of ellipse fields. Simple experiments are proposed for observing this unusual property of elliptically polarized light.     

Polarization singularities in optical lattices

Polarization singularities are shown to be unavoidable features of three-dimensional optical lattices. These singularities take the form of lines of circular polarization, C lines, and lines of linear polarization, L lines. The polarization figures surrounding a C line (L line) rotate about the line with winding number +/-1/2 (+/-1). C and L lines permeate the lattice, meander throughout the unit cell, and form closed loops. Surprisingly, every point in a linearly polarized optical lattice is found to be a singularity about which the surrounding polarization vectors rotate with an integer winding number.     

Composite stokes singularities in coherently and incoherently superimposed vector optical fields

The composite Stokes singularities formed in the coherent and incoherent superposition of two vector monochromatic coherent optical fields are studied and compared analytically and numerically. It is shown that the dynamic behavior of composite Stokes singularities depends on the superposition scheme (coherent or incoherent superposition), initial spatial distributions of the two superimposed fields, and propagation distance, and for the coherent superposition additionally depends on the relative phase of the two fields. There exist S₁₂ (C-points), S₃₁, S₂₃ composite singularities, and L-lines, in particular, V-points and C-lines at the transverse plane. Generally, both V-points and C-lines are unstable. For the coherent superposition the degree of polarization P=1, whereas for the incoherent superposition P may be less than 1 and is variable upon propagation. The results are illustrated analytically and numerically.     

Singularities in speckled speckle

Speckle patterns produced by random optical fields with two (or more) widely different correlation lengths exhibit speckle spots that are themselves highly speckled. Using computer simulations and analytic theory we present results for the point singularities of speckled speckle fields, namely, optical vortices in scalar (one polarization component) fields and C points in vector (two polarization components) fields. In single correlation length fields both types of singularities tend to be more or less uniformly distributed. In contrast, the singularity structure of speckled speckle is anomalous; for some sets of source parameters vortices and C points tend to form widely separated giant clusters, for other parameter sets these singularities tend to form chains that surround large empty regions. The critical point statistics of speckled speckle is also anomalous. In scalar (vector) single correlation length fields phase (azimuthal) extrema are always outnumbered by vortices (C points). In contrast, in speckled speckle fields, phase extrema can outnumber vortices and azimuthal extrema can outnumber C points by factors that can easily exceed 10(4) for experimentally realistic source parameters.     

Polarization evolution characteristics of focused hybridly polarized vector fields

We investigate the focusing property and the polarization evolution characteristics of hybridly polarized vector fields in the focal region. Three types of hybridly polarized vector fields, namely azimuthal-variant hybridly polarized vector field, radial-variant hybridly polarized vector field, and spatial-variant hybridly polarized vector field, are experimentally generated. The intensity distributions and the polarization evolution of these hybridly polarized vector fields focused under low numerical aperture (NA) are experimentally studied and good agreements with the numerical simulations are obtained. The three-dimensional (3D) state of polarization and the field distribution within the focal volume of these hybridly polarized vector fields under high-NA focusing are studied numerically. The optical curl force on Rayleigh particles induced by tightly focused hybridly polarized vector fields, which results in the orbital motion of trapped particles, is analyzed. Simulation results demonstrate that polarization-only modulation provided by the hybridly polarized vector field allows one to control both the intensity distribution and 3D elliptical polarization in the focal region, which may find interesting applications in particle trapping, manipulation, and orientation analysis.     

Emergent polarization singularities

Polarization singularities are shown to emerge spontaneously from the incoherent addition of uncorrelated optical fields that individually need not contain singularities. Examples of this phenomenon are given for both vector and ellipse fields. The incoherent addition of vector fields whose singularities have integer winding numbers is shown to yield fields whose singularities have half-integer winding numbers. These findings are used to make predictions about the singularities of the polarized component of the cosmic microwave background.     

Stokes parameters of optical singularities of random electromagnetic beams

In this paper,the relation between the spectral degree of coherence and degree of polarization of random electromagnetic beams is derived by the Stokes parameters.And the concept of polarization singularity is extended from spatially fully coherent beams to partially coherent electromagnetic beams.Theoretical analysis shows that correlation vortices are linearly polarized singularities.The results are illustrated by numerical examples.     

双芯光子晶体光纤中的模式干涉

应用全矢量超格子叠加模型分析了双芯光子晶体光纤(PCF)的模式特征.双芯PCF的基模和二次模分别由偏振方向不同的两个偶模和两个奇模组成，讨论了这四个模式的模式电场奇偶性.基于对双芯PCF模式电场奇偶性的认识，讨论了光纤中的矢量模式干涉问题.分析表明，不同偏振态模式的干涉不会引起芯间的功率转移，双芯PCF的芯间功率耦合是由相同偏振模式的干涉引起的.在相同偏振模式干涉过程中，光功率在两个芯子中呈余弦振荡，光纤的两个芯子一般存在约π／2的相位差.还讨论了两个不同偏振方向的耦合系数与波长的关系. 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 双芯光纤 模式 干涉 耦合     

双孔干涉产生偏振奇点分析

在近轴近似的条件下,采用标量衍射积分的方法,对电磁场的双孔干涉进行了研究,并对千涉场中产生偏振奇点的情况进行了推广。在研究中通过双孔的光电场为线偏振状态,具有不同的偏振方向。数值计算结果表明,即使通过双孔的光电场的相位相同,只要双孔的尺寸存在一定的差异,干涉场中除了能够产生普通的的线偏振外,圆偏振奇点也会出现。     

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.