Related papers: Bright and Dark Helices of Light
Light beams can be symmetric under different transformations: translations, rotations, mirror symmetries, duality transformations, etc. In this thesis, a systematic way of characterizing these symmetries is presented. Then, it is shown that…
High-order harmonic generation via single-slit diffraction of relativistic laser pulses is investigated. Using fully kinetic 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations, we show that interesting optical phenomena emerge, including the generation…
The possibility that around some astrophysical objects there are non-static magnetic fields of enormous intensity suggests that in these situations real particles may be produced. The slowness of the variation is compensated by the huge…
Structured light enables the characterization of chirality of optically small nanoparticles by taking advantage of the helicity maximization concept recently introduced in[1]. By referring to fields with nonzero helicity density as chiral…
Under the action of light-by-light scattering, light beams show collective behaviors in vacuum. For instance, in the case of two counterpropagating laser beams with specific initial helicity, the polarization of each beam oscillates…
Radially-polarized light beams present very interesting and useful behavior for creating small intensity spots when tightly-focused, and manipulating nanostructures or charged particles. The modeling of the propagation of such vector beams,…
Vortices are topologically stable singularities at the center of a swirl of energy. Optical vortices are conventionally formed using diffractive optics or by bespoke optical elements. We report room temperature integrated lasers directly…
We consider two dimensional and three dimensional semi-infinite tubes made of "Lambertian" material, so that the distribution of the direction of a reflected light ray has the density proportional to the cosine of the angle with the normal…
On the one hand, electromagnetic dual particles preserve the helicity of light upon interaction. On the other hand, chiral particles respond differently to light of opposite helicity. These two properties on their own constitute a source of…
Free-space light beams with complex intensity patterns, or non-trivial phase structure, are demanded in diverse fields, ranging from classical and quantum optical communications, to manipulation and imaging of microparticles and cells.…
The use of a wire mesh facilitates creation of multiple optical traps for manipulation of small micron or sub-micron particles. Such an array of optical traps can be easily controlled. The trap that is formed in this manner is a continuous…
This study proposes that a metallic helix array can operate as a highly-transparent broadband wave plate in propagation directions perpendicular to the axis of helices. The functionality arises from a special property of the helix array,…
Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are unusual solutions of wave equations describing light or matter: they are discrete and spatially bounded, but exist at the same energy as a continuum of states which propagate to infinity. Until…
Digital micromirror devices are a popular type of spatial light modulators for wavefront shaping applications. While they offer several advantages when compared to liquid crystal modulators, such as polarization insensitivity and…
We demonstrate a method to create potential barriers with polarized light beams for polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. The form of the barriers is engineered via the real space shape of a focalised beam on the sample. Their height…
Light interacts differently with left and right handed three dimensional chiral objects, like helices, and this leads to the phenomenon known as optical activity. Here, by applying a polarization tomography, we show experimentally, for the…
It is demonstrated that targets with a broken rotational symmetry may facilitate generation of a strong axial (poloidal) magnetic field. An intense laser beam irradiating such a target creates intense electron currents carrying vorticity…
Grayscale lithography allows the creation of micrometer-scale features with spatially-controlled height in a process that is fully compatible with standard lithography. Here, solid immersion lenses are demonstrated in silicon carbide using…
The extreme nonlinear optical process of high-harmonic generation (HHG) makes it possible to map the properties of a laser beam onto a radiating electron wavefunction, and in turn, onto the emitted x-ray light. Bright HHG beams typically…
Vector beam, with a spatial nonuniform polarization distribution, is important for many applications due to its unique field characteristics and novel effects when interacting with matter. Here through three-dimensional particle-in-cell…