Related papers: Light propagation in a birefringent plates with to…
Typically the use of the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction formula as a photon propagator is widely accepted due to the abundant experimental evidence that suggests that it works. However, a direct link between the propagation of the…
Exploiting electro-optic effects in liquid crystals, we achieved real-time control of the retardation of liquid- crystal-based $q$-plates through an externally applied voltage. The newly conceived electro-optic $q$-plates can be operated as…
We study the wave propagation in nonlinear electrodynamical models. Particular attention is paid to the derivation and the analysis of the Fresnel equation for the wave covectors. For the class of general nonlinear Lagrangian models, we…
The linear birefringence of uniaxial crystal plates is known since the 17th century, and it is widely used in numerous optical setups and devices. Here we demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, a fine lateral circular…
Spin-orbit interactions of light couple polarization and spatial degrees of freedom, underpinning phenomena such as the spin Hall effect of light. Although widely explored at interfaces and in tightly focused beams, their impact in…
The $q$-plate is a spatially inhomogeneous SU(2) birefringent optical element that has garnered significant interest due to its ability to mediate the spin-orbit interaction of light and facilitate the generation of optical vortices. The…
We introduce a new class of optical beams, which feature a spatial profile akin to an ``inverted pin''. In particular, we asymptotically find that close to the axis the transverse amplitude profile of such beams takes the form of a Bessel…
Vortex beams are a type of structured light characterized by phase rotation around the propagation axis, resulting in orbital angular momentum. Their properties make them useful in various applications such as high-resolution microscopy,…
In this paper, we present numerical and experimental evidence of directional wave behavior, i.e. beaming and diffraction, along high-order rotational symmetries of quasicrystalline elastic metamaterial plates. These structures are obtained…
This paper is devoted to study the propagation of light beams carrying orbital angular momentum in optically anisotropic media. We first review some properties of homogeneous anisotropic media, and describe how the paraxial formalism is…
When light is transmitted through optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic media the spatial distribution of light can be modified according to its input polarization state. A complete analysis of this process, based on the paraxial…
We describe the polarization topology of the vector beams emerging from a patterned birefringent liquid crystal plate with a topological charge $q$ at its center ($q$-plate). The polarization topological structures for different $q$-plates…
The diffraction and transition radiation under normal incidence of a particle to the semi-infinite dielectric plate had been considered previously using the eikonal approximation in the transition radiation theory. This approach is valid…
The optical "spin-orbit" coupling occurring in a suitably patterned nonuniform birefringent plate known as `q-plate' allows entangling the polarization of a single photon with its orbital angular momentum (OAM). This process, in turn, can…
We investigate how the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of a paraxial light beam is affected upon reflection at a planar interface. Theoretically, the unavoidable angular spread of the (paraxial) beam leads to OAM sidebands which are found to…
The paraxial approximation of a classical spinning photon is shown to yield an "exotic particle" in the plane transverse to the propagation. The previously proposed and observed position shift between media with different refractive indices…
In light beams with circular or elliptic polarization, the transverse energy flow consists of the "spin" and "orbital" parts. Both of them can induce the orbital motion of microparticles suspended within the field of a light beam, and this…
Beam propagation beyond the paraxial approximation is studied in an optically written waveguide structure. The waveguide structure that leads to diffractionless light propagation, is imprinted on a medium consisting of a five-level atomic…
Determination of orientation in the imaged sample/scene has a large application potential when the anisotropy of properties is analysed, usually, under a linearly polarised illumination. This study combined several improvements of…
In this work we experimentally implement a deterministic transfer of a generic qubit initially encoded in the orbital angular momentum of a single photon to its polarization. Such transfer of quantum information, completely reversible, has…