Related papers: Bright and Dark Helices of Light
Structured light and high-intensity ultrafast lasers are two rapidly advancing frontiers in photonics, yet their intersection remains largely unexplored. While ultrafast lasers continue to push the boundaries of peak intensities, structured…
We show that light spiraling like a tornado can be generated by superimposing abruptly auto-focusing ring-Airy beams that carry orbital angular momentum of opposite handedness. With different parabolic propagation trajectories, the…
Shaping the electron wavefunction in three dimensions may prove to be an indispensable tool for research involving atomic-sized particle trapping, manipulation, and synthesis. We utilize computer-generated holograms to sculpt electron…
In this work, we study the realization of realistic polarization transformers formed by long metallic helices. To this end, we propose a new homogenization model to characterize the propagation of electromagnetic waves in medium formed by…
Hyperuniform structures possess the ability to confine and drive light, although their fabrication is extremely challenging. Here we demonstrate that speckle patters obtained by a superposition of randomly arranged sources of Bessel beams…
Light-actuated motors, vehicles, and even space sails have drawn tremendous attention for basic science and applications in space, biomedical, and sensing domains. Optical bound states in the continuum (BIC) are topological singularities of…
Nonlinear optical effects are used to generate coherent light at wavelengths difficult to reach with lasers. Materials periodically poled or nanostructured in the nonlinear susceptibility in three spatial directions are called 3D nonlinear…
A charged particle passing through or near a narrow optical fiber induces, by polarisation, coherent light guided by the fiber. In the limit of zero crossing angle, the radiation tends towards a Cherenkov radiation with a discrete spectrum,…
Using numerical simulations we show how to realise an optical black hole laser, i.e. an amplifier formed by travelling refractive index perturbations arranged so as to trap light between a white and a black hole horizon. The simulations…
Bound states in the continuum (BICs) have attracted attention in photonics owing to their interesting properties. For example, BICs can effectively confine light in a counter-intuitive way and the far-field radiation of photonic structures…
Optical dipole traps and fractional Talbot optical lattices based on the interference between multiple co-propagating laser beams are proposed. The variation of relative amplitudes and phases of the interfering light beams of these traps…
It has been recently shown that especially engineered light beams have the remarkable ability to propagate along curved trajectories in vacuum. Current methods for generating accelerating beams use phase modulators and lenses leading to…
A new perspective on how to manipulate molecules by means of very strong laser pulses is emerging with insights from the so-called light-induced potentials, which are the adiabatic potential energy surfaces of molecules severely distorted…
Recent results from gravitational lensing are combined with new modeling of the stellar velocity distributions in nearby galaxies to probe the connection between the luminous and the dark matter in elliptical galaxies. From analysing a…
We point out a few remarkable properties of the $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$ process at high energy. They should allow to search for effects of new particles and interactions. We give illustrations with threshold effects due to pairs of…
We demonstrate a new practical approach for generating multicolour spiral-shaped beams. It makes use of a standard silica optical fibre, combined with a titled input laser beam. The resulting breaking of the fibre axial symmetry leads to…
We introduce a new method to search for the dark matter sector particles using laser light. Some dark matter particles may have a small mixing or interaction with a photon. High-power lasers provide substantial test grounds for these…
We review both theoretical and experimental advances in the recently emerged physics of modulated photonic lattices. Artificial periodic dielectric media, such as photonic crystals and photonic lattices, provide a powerful tool for the…
Holography has emerged as a vital approach to fully engineer the wavefronts of light since its invention dating back to the last century. However, the typically large pixel size, small field of view and limited space-bandwidth impose…
In gravitational lensing, the concept of optical depth assumes the lens is dark. Several microlensing detections have now been made where the lens may be bright. Relations are developed between apparent and absolute optical depth in the…