Guiding light via geometric phases

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Author(s)
Slussarenko, Sergei
Alberucci, Alessandro
Jisha, Chandroth P
Piccirillo, Bruno
Santamato, Enrico
Assanto, Gaetano
Marrucci, Lorenzo
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2016
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Show full item recordAbstract
Known methods for transverse confinement and guidance of light can be grouped into a few basic mechanisms, the most common being metallic reflection, total internal reflection and photonic-bandgap (or Bragg) reflection1–5. All of them essentially rely on changes of the refractive index, that is on scalar properties of light. Recently, processes based on “geometric Berry phases”, such as manipulation of polarization states or deflection of spinning-light rays6–9, have attracted considerable interest in the contexts of singular optics and structured light10,11. Here, we disclose a new approach to light waveguiding, using geometric ...
View more >Known methods for transverse confinement and guidance of light can be grouped into a few basic mechanisms, the most common being metallic reflection, total internal reflection and photonic-bandgap (or Bragg) reflection1–5. All of them essentially rely on changes of the refractive index, that is on scalar properties of light. Recently, processes based on “geometric Berry phases”, such as manipulation of polarization states or deflection of spinning-light rays6–9, have attracted considerable interest in the contexts of singular optics and structured light10,11. Here, we disclose a new approach to light waveguiding, using geometric Berry phases and exploiting polarization states and their handling. This can be realized in structured three-dimensional anisotropic media, in which the optic axis lies orthogonal to the propagation direction and is modulated along it and across the transverse plane, so that the refractive index remains constant but a phase distortion can be imposed on a beam. In addition to a complete theoretical analysis with numerical simulations, we present a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of this effect in a discrete element implementation of a geometric phase waveguide. The mechanism we introduce shows that spin-orbit optical interactions can play an important role in integrated optics and paves the way to an entire new class of photonic systems that exploit the vectorial nature of light.
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View more >Known methods for transverse confinement and guidance of light can be grouped into a few basic mechanisms, the most common being metallic reflection, total internal reflection and photonic-bandgap (or Bragg) reflection1–5. All of them essentially rely on changes of the refractive index, that is on scalar properties of light. Recently, processes based on “geometric Berry phases”, such as manipulation of polarization states or deflection of spinning-light rays6–9, have attracted considerable interest in the contexts of singular optics and structured light10,11. Here, we disclose a new approach to light waveguiding, using geometric Berry phases and exploiting polarization states and their handling. This can be realized in structured three-dimensional anisotropic media, in which the optic axis lies orthogonal to the propagation direction and is modulated along it and across the transverse plane, so that the refractive index remains constant but a phase distortion can be imposed on a beam. In addition to a complete theoretical analysis with numerical simulations, we present a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of this effect in a discrete element implementation of a geometric phase waveguide. The mechanism we introduce shows that spin-orbit optical interactions can play an important role in integrated optics and paves the way to an entire new class of photonic systems that exploit the vectorial nature of light.
View less >
Journal Title
Nature Photonics
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Nature Publishing Group. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Mathematical sciences
Physical sciences
Other physical sciences not elsewhere classified