Human psychophysical discrimination of spatially dependant Pancharatnam–Berry phases in optical spin-orbit states

Abstract

We tested the ability of human observers to discriminate distinct profiles of spatially dependant geometric phases when directly viewing stationary structured light beams. Participants viewed polarization coupled orbital angular momentum (OAM) states, or “spin-orbit” states, in which the OAM was induced through Pancharatnam–Berry phases. The coupling between polarization and OAM in these beams manifests as spatially dependant polarization. Regions of uniform polarization are perceived as specifically oriented Haidinger’s brushes, and study participants discriminated between two spin-orbit states based on the rotational symmetry in the spatial orientations of these brushes. Participants used self-generated eye movements to prevent adaptation to the visual stimuli. After initial training, the participants were able to correctly discriminate between two spin-orbit states, differentiated by OAM $$=\pm 1$$ = ± 1 , with an average success probability of $$69\%$$ 69 % ($$S.D. = 22\%$$ S . D . = 22 % , $$p = 0.01$$ p = 0.01 ). These results support our previous observation that human observers can directly perceive spin-orbit states, and extend this finding to non-rotating beams, OAM modes induced via Pancharatnam–Berry phases, and the discrimination of states that are differentiated by OAM.

Conditions on detecting tripartite entangled state in psychophysical experiments

“…This study aims to determine if human subjects can indirectly infer the presence of higher-dimensional entanglement, quantum entangled light through psychophysical experiments, starting with the simpler case of bipartite entangled states before considering tripartite entangled states to understand the impact of psychophysical conditions. Our work is different from the pioneering works [31][32][33][34] in several crucial aspects. First, we consider the case of higher dimensional entanglement, in particular tripartite entanglement.…”

“…Sarenac et al [33] experimentally demonstrated that human subjects can distinguish between two polarization-coupled orbital angular momentum (OAM) states when viewing a structured light beam. More recently, it was demonstrated that human subjects can perceive different OAM modes created through Pancharatnam-Berry phases [34].…”

Structured light enhanced entoptic stimuli for vision science applications

“…In addition to the AMD related applications, structured light stimuli also enable several interesting physics applications in the rising field of quantum vision (Loulakis et al, 2017 ; Margaritakis et al, 2020 ; Gassab et al, 2023 ). Sarenac et al ( 2022 ) tested the ability of human observers to discriminate distinct profiles of spatially dependant geometric phases when directly viewing stationary structured light beams. Participants used self-generated eye movements to induce motion in the perceived entoptic phenomenon.…”

“…The coupling of polarization to structured light enables the preparation of beams with spatially varying polarization profiles (Marrucci et al, 2011 ), opening avenues to applications in high-bandwidth communication and optical metrology (Milione et al, 2015 ; Rubinsztein-Dunlop et al, 2016 ). These states were also the backbone of the recent integration of structured light techniques into vision science for the creation of stimuli with higher numbers of azimuthal fringes (Sarenac et al, 2020 ), enabling the perception and discrimination of Pancharatnam-Berry phases (Sarenac et al, 2022 ), measuring the visual angle of entoptic phenomena (Kapahi et al, 2023 ), retinal imaging using structured light (Kapahi et al, 2023 ), and the creation of radially varying entoptic stimuli (Pushin et al, 2023 ).…”

Conditions on detecting three-photon entanglement in psychophysical experiments

“…Sarenac et al experimentally demonstrated that human subjects can distinguish between two polarization-coupled orbital angular momentum (OAM) states when viewing a structured light beam 31 . More recently, it was demonstrated that human subjects can perceive different OAM modes created through Pancharatnam-Berry phases 32 .…”