Spin-orbit optical cross-phase-modulation

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.82.063836· OSTI ID:21528996

Brasselet, Etienne ^[1]

---

1. Centre de Physique Moleculaire Optique et Hertzienne, Universite Bordeaux 1, CNRS, 351 Cours de la Liberation, 33405 Talence Cedex (France)

We show experimentally that optical phase singularities (PSs) can be written and erased, locally and in a controllable manner, into a light beam using the giant Kerr optical nonlinearities of liquid crystals. The method relies on the nonlinear optical spin-orbit coupling experienced by a collimated probe beam when a collinear focused pump beam imprints a radial birefringent pattern into a nematic film. In addition, experimental data are quantitatively described, accounting for the elastic anisotropy of the material and its nonlocal spatial response to the pump light field. Since we show that the optical intensity of a light beam (the 'pump') controls the phase of another beam (the 'probe') in a singular fashion (i.e., with the generation of a screw PS) via their interaction in a nonlinear medium that involves spin-orbit coupling, we dubbed such a nonlinear optical process as spin-orbit optical cross-phase-modulation.

• OSTI ID: 21528996
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 82, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.82.063836; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANISOTROPY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FREQUENCY MODULATION
INTERACTIONS
LIQUID CRYSTALS
L-S COUPLING
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PHOTON BEAMS
SINGULARITY
SPIN
VISIBLE RADIATION
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
BEAMS
COUPLING
CRYSTALS
DATA
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FLUIDS
INFORMATION
INTERMEDIATE COUPLING
LIQUIDS
MODULATION
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS