Circular dichroism of cholesteric polymers and the orbital angular momentum of light
Optics
2011-06-20 v1
Abstract
We explore experimentally if the light's orbital angular momentum (OAM) interacts with chiral nematic polymer films. Specifically, we measure the circular dichroism of such a material using light beams with different OAM. We investigate the case of strongly focussed, non-paraxial light beams, where the spatial and polarization degrees of freedom are coupled. Within the experimental accuracy, we cannot find any influence of the OAM on the circular dichroism of the cholesteric polymer.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1104.0556,
title = {Circular dichroism of cholesteric polymers and the orbital angular momentum of light},
author = {W. Löffler and D. J. Broer and J. P. Woerdman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1104.0556},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
3 pages, 4 figures