Calculations of Backscattering Mueller Matrices for Turbid Media with a Sphere Queue Model

A sphere queue model is introduced to calculate Mueller matrices of turbid media. Combined with the single scattering approximation, the backscattering Mueller matrices of turbid media can be computed rapidly by Mie theory. The numerical results agree with the azimuthal dependences of backscattering Mueller matrices＇ patterns from turbid media, which indicates that the major contribution to the Mueller matrices＇ patterns comes from the single scattering of the sphere queue, and the multiple scattering considered as a high-order correction does not change the patterns. The numerical analysis reveals that the contrast of Mueller matrices＇ patterns will decrease with increase of the concentration of media and the distance from the incident point.     

The use of fractional orders in the determination of birefringence of highly dispersive materials by the channelled spectrum method

The channelled spectrum employing polarized light interference is a very convenient method for the study of dispersion of birefringence. However, while using this method, the absolute order of the polarized light interference fringes cannot be determined easily. Approximate methods are therefore used to estimate the order. One of the approximations is that the dispersion of birefringence across neighbouring integer order fringes is negligible. In this paper, we show how this approximation can cause errors. A modification is reported whereby the error in the determination of absolute fringe order can be reduced using fractional orders instead of integer orders. The theoretical background for this method supported with computer simulation is presented. An experimental arrangement implementing these modifications is described. This method uses a Constant Deviation Spectrometer (CDS) and a Soleil Babinet Compensator (SBC).     

Polarization-selective grating mirrors used in the generation of radial polarization

Two novel methods to control the polarization of laser radiation are presented. The discrimination between different polarization distributions isperformed with a corrugation grating in the top high-index layer of a multilayer mirror, which couples the undesired polarization into a lossy waveguidemode of the multilayer. The generation of radially polarized radiation in a laser resonator is presented as a practical verification of the principle.This revised version was published online in May 2005. The Article Category was removed.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Giant Birefringence of Lithium Niobate Crystals in the Terahertz Region

Terahertz time-domaln spectroscopy （THz-TDS） is used to study the spectral response of lithium niobate crystals （LiNbO3） in the far infrared region. The optical constants are derived from the measured complex refractive index. A giant birefringence is observed in this material, and the average refractive-index difference between the ordinary wave and the extraordinary wave, no - ne, can reach up to about 1.6. Such a large birefrlngence is attributed to the different p honon modes orAl（z） and E （ x , y ）. This unusual property makes LiNbO3 a promising material to be used as a functional material in the terahertz region, e.g. employed as wave-plates and polarization separators.     

Inverse Relaxation of Photoinduced Birefringence in a Liquid-Crystalline Azobenzene Side-Chain Polymer

Photoinduced birefringence in a liquid-crystalline azobenzene side-chain polymer is investigated. It is observed that the birefringence does not show any decay but increases after switching off the pump light at room temperature. The magnitude of the birefringence relaxation is found to depend on the exposure dose of the pump light. A discussion about the mechanism of the inverse relaxation of birefringence is presented.     

Direct measurement of dispersion of the group refractive indices of quartz crystal by white-light spectral interferometry

We present a white-light spectral interferometric technique employing a low-resolution spectrometer for a direct measurement of the dispersion of the ordinary and extraordinary group refractive indices of a quartz crystal over the wavelength range approximately from 480 to 860 nm. The technique utilizes a dispersive Michelson interferometer with the quartz crystal of known thickness to record a series of spectral interferograms and to measure the equalization wavelength as a function of the displacement of the interferometer mirror from the reference position, which corresponds to a balanced non-dispersive Michelson interferometer. We confirm that the measured group dispersion agrees well with that described by the dispersion equation proposed by Ghosh. We also show that the measured mirror displacement depends, in accordance with the theory, linearly on the theoretical group refractive index and that the slope of the corresponding straight line gives precisely the thickness of the quartz crystal.     

Interference of conoscopic pictures of optical crystals

Nonconventional conoscopic pictures in poorly passing bunches of light, localized in a plane of uni-axial optical crystal are received. At usage of two crystal slabs with the optical axes oriented at angle to the plane of slab the interference conoscopic pictures are observed. The model explaining interference of conoscopic pictures is presented.     

Temperature Influence on Divergence Angles of Quartz Crystal Wollaston Prism

We propose a structural angle and main refractive indices as two key factors to understand the temperature influence on the divergence angles of the Wollaston prism. The temperature influence on the divergence angles of quartz crystal Wollaston prism is studied theoretically. The results show that divergence angles decrease with increasing temperature, while the divergence angle of e-light decrease more quickly than that of o-light. The testing system is established to verify the above results, and the experimental results are in agreement well with the theoretical analysis.     

Rotations of eigenvibration direction in anisotropic crystals

The electric field of incident light induces dipoles in anisotropic media, vibrating in two perpendicular directions of the principal axes. Because of the tensor property of the dielectric constant, an induced dipole is subject to a torque, tending to rotate it about the axis parallel to the propagation direction. The directions of eigenvibration of the ordinary (o-ray) and extraordinary (e-ray) waves are no longer perpendicular in this sense. We propose here the relationships to describe the rotation of the induced dipole in the perpendicular electric fields. The rotation angles are found to increase with increasing dielectric constants and electric field strength of the incident light, exhibiting large values near the resonance frequencies in the infrared range at the azimuth angle /4 of the polarized incident light. Piezoelectric and ferroelectric crystals have a large value of the dielectric constant in the infrared frequency range. Rotations of the vibration direction of the o-ray and the e-ray waves are shown in the infrared transmission spectra recorded by incidence of the polarized light and transmission through piezoelectric and ferroelectric crystals (-quartz, LiNbO₃, and LiTaO₃). Interference of the o-ray and the e-ray waves transmitted through the crystals confirms the rotations of the vibration directions, a self-modulation effect of light in piezoelectric and ferroelectric crystals induced by the electric field of the propagating light.     

Uniaxial Strain Effects on Optical Properties of c-plane Wurtzite GaN

We investigate the uniaxial strain effect in the e-plane on optical properties of wurtzite GaN based on k.p theory, the spin-orbit interactions are also taken into account. The energy dispersions show that the uniaxial strain in the c-plane gives an anisotropic energy splitting in the kx - ky plane, which can reduce the density of states. The uniaxial strain also results in giant in-plane optical polarization anisotropy, hence causes the threshold carrier density reduced. We clarify the relations between the uniaxial strain and the optical polarization properties. As a result, it is suggested that the compressive uniaxial strain perpendicular to the laser cavity direction in the c-plane is one of the preferable approaches for the efficient improvement of GaN-based laser performance.     

Matrix-Based Polarization Analysis and Application of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

Employing the Mueller matrix method with polar decomposition, we analyse the polarization rotation (PR) effects in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and demonstrate that the PR angle is linear to the birefringence dependent gain while the average PR coefficient is about 0.625 for the employed SOA. It is further evident that the current and optical intensity dependent PRs rotate reversely around the same axis. Thus we propose an optical-electric synchronous control scheme to obtain orthogonal polarization states with power-equalization, and implement it by a polarization-sensitive SOA. The polarization duration time is about 10 ns which is applicable to high-speed polarization state generation.     

Bandwidth tuning of hybrid liquid-crystal Šolc filters based on an optical cancelling technique

We demonstrate that in addition to their role in tuning the wavelength of an N-stage hybrid liquid-crystal Šolc filter, liquid-crystal cells can also be used to vary the transmission bandwidth of such filter around any of the tuned wavelength. This bandwidth tuning is based on the variation of the number of stages by what we call here an “optical cancelling technique”. This is achieved by varying the birefringence of the liquid-crystal cells whose optical path difference switches between two particular values. We show that for a 10-stage filter and at λ_i = 1.532 μm, the calculated 3-dB bandwidth varies from 2.6 to 11.8 nm when the number of “optically-cancelled” hybrid plates increases from 0 to 8. During the tuning process, the contrast ratio remains equal to that of the equivalent classical Šolc filter.     

A Multilayered Configuration Broadband Polarization Insensitive Reflector Utilizing a Multi-Subpart Profile Grating Structure

A multilayered configuration broad bandwidth polarization insensitive reflector realized by a multi-subpart profile grating structure is presented. The properties of the reflector are investigated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis. It is shown that over a broadband spectrum of 1.62-1.76μm, the reflector demonstrates high reflectivity （R 〉 99%）, low polarization-dependent loss （PDL〈 0.02 dB） and good angular insensitivity of about 29.6% for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarized waves.     

Large Positive and Negative Lateral Displacements from Total Internal Reflection Configuration with a Weakly Absorbing Dielectric Film

It is theoretically shown that the simultaneously large positive and negative lateral displacements will appear when the resonant condition is satisfied for a TE-polarized light beam reflected from the total internal reflection configuration with a weakly absorbing dielectric film. Appearance of the enhanced negative lateral displacement is relative to the incidence angle, absorption of the thin film and its thickness. If we select an appropriate weakly absorbing dielectric film and its thickness, the simultaneously enhanced positive and negative lateral displacements will appear at different resonant angles. These phenomena may lead to convenient measurements and interesting applications in optical devices.     

Giant optical activity and circular dichroism in the terahertz region based on bi-layer Y-shaped chiral metamaterial

We present a bi-layer Y-shaped chiral metamaterial (CMM) that can realize a giant optical activity and circular dichroism (CD) effect to the incident linear polarization wave in the terahertz (THz) region. Numerical simulation results exhibit that the pronounced CD effect with a great difference between the transmission coefficients for the circularly polarized waves can be obtained at 5.06 THz, meanwhile the 90°-polarization rotation can be observed at 5.2 THz when a y-polarized wave is incident to this CMM propagating along the −z-axis. The mechanism of the optical activity and giant CD effect is illustrated by simulated surface current distributions. Further, the influences of the structural parameters of the proposed CMM to the optical activity and CD effect have been investigated numerically.     

Spatial-angular Mueller matrices

Arbitrary polarization changing devices are described within paraxial approximation by their action on the spatial angular Stokes parameters associated with the generalized rays of a Wigner formulation of wave optics. This approach leads to the introduction of generalized Mueller matrices being functions of the spatial and angular variables parameterizing generalized rays. We apply this approach to a polarization grating.     

Self-modulation of infrared waves in rutile

Electromagnetic waves carry angular and linear momentums and exert torques on anisotropic dielectrics, arising from the fact of the tensor property of the dielectric constant, that is, the direction of electric displacement is not parallel to the electric field vector of the incident light. The torque per unit volume exerted on a wave plate is given by P×E$\mathit{P}\times \mathit{E}$, where P is the polarization and E is the electric field, which induces the rotations of eigenvibration direction in the crystals. The rotation angles increase with the intensity of the incident light and the dielectric constant of the crystals. Because of the large dielectric constants, self-modulation of the incident light in the infrared frequency region was clearly demonstrated in the infrared transmission spectra of ferroelectric and piezoelectric crystals. Rutile (TiO₂) is a non-ferroelectric and non-piezoelectric crystal, but it also has the large dielectric constants. Rotations of the vibration direction of the ordinary (o-ray) and the extraordinary (e-ray) waves were shown in the infrared transmission spectra recorded by incidence of the plane-polarized light and transmission through a rutile plate. Interference of the o-ray and the e-ray waves transmitted through the crystals confirms the rotations of eigenvibration direction, a self-modulation effect of light in the crystal of large dielectric constants and large birefringence in the infrared range.     

Photoinduced linear and/or circular birefringences from light propagation through amorphous or smectic azopolymer films

The self-induced rotation of the azimuth of elliptically polarized light passing through birefringent azopolymer thin films is investigated. The experiments were carried out on thin films of the amorphous p(DR1M-co-MMA) and p(DR1M) azopolymer samples and of the p(6MAN) derivative in its glassy and liquid-crystalline phases. In fact, using various controlled input light ellipticities, linear birefringence (LB) and/or circular birefringence (CB) measurements were performed separately and in conjunction with polarization analyses of the transmitted pump beam. According to a general theoretical analysis based on Jones’ matrix formalism, it is thus shown that the induced rotation angle through the films depends mainly on the ellipticity of the input light, on the generated LB level and, to a lesser extent, on the CB photoinduced in the liquid-crystalline phase. In the latter case, it is concluded that irradiation with circularly polarized light does induce a chiral arrangement in the polymer film, although the photosensitive chromophores do not contain any optically active group. Received: 22 April 2002 / Revised version: 28 May 2002 / Published online: 25 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +33-5/5684-8402; E-mail: csouri@morgane.lsmc.u-bordeaux.fr     

Polarization-resolved analysis of the characteristics of a Raman laser made with a polarization maintaining fiber

We derive a simple model describing steady characteristics of Raman fiber lasers made with polarization maintaining fibers. We show both theoretically and experimentally that this kind of laser simply consists of two independent Raman lasers linearly polarized along the fiber birefringence axes. The output power characteristics of the laser are shown not to be influenced by optical Kerr effect. Finally, we use our model to propose answers to questions recently raised about efficiency of Raman lasers made with polarization maintaining fibers.