2016/06/15 by C. C. Leary, C.C. Leary, Maggie Lankford +1
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Beam (structure) #Interference (communication) #Laser beams #Light beam #Light intensity #Linear polarization #Neural Networks and Reservoir Computing #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Photon #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Transverse plane #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.1364/oe.24.014227
published in Optics Express 24(13), 14227 (Optica Publishing Group) · 15 pages, 5 figures, final version
openalex publication_date 2016/06/15 · arxiv created 2017/08/01 · arxiv updated 2017/08/03 · openalex created_date 2017/10/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report the experimental generation of a class of spin-orbit vector modes of light via an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, obtained from an input beam prepared in a product state of its spin and orbital degrees of freedom. These modes contain a spatially varying polarization structure which may be controllably propagated about the beam axis by varying the retardance between the vertical and horizontal polarization components of the light. Additionally, their transverse spatial intensity distributions may be continuously manipulated by tuning the input polarization parameters. In the case of an analogous biphoton input, we predict that this device will exhibit biphoton (Hong-Ou-Mandel) interference in conjunction with the aforementioned tunable mode transformations.