Manipulating orbital angular momentum of light with tailored in-plane polarization states

Du, Luping; Man, Zhongsheng; Zhang, Yuquan; Min, Changjun; Zhu, Siwei; Yuan, Xiaocong

doi:10.1038/srep41001

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…In the monochromatic field limit, the fields in Eqs. (7) and (8) and the resulting Poynting vector can be approximated further as explained in Appendix B. This approximation allows us to perform the integrations in Eqs.…”

Section: B Linear Polarizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass-polariton theory of sharing the total angular momentum of light between the field and matter

Partanen

Tulkki

2018

Phys. Rev. A

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Light propagating in a nondispersive medium is accompanied by a mass density wave (MDW) of atoms set in motion by the optical force of the field itself [Phys. Rev. A 95, 063850 (2017)]. This recent result is in strong contrast with the approximation of fixed atoms, which assumes that atoms are fixed to their equilibrium positions when light propagates in a medium and which is deeply rooted in the conventional electrodynamics of continuous media. In many photonic materials, the atoms carry the majority of the total momentum of light and their motion also gives rise to net transfer of medium mass with a light pulse. In this work, we use optoelastic continuum dynamics combining the optical force field, elasticity theory, and Newtonian mechanics to analyze the angular momentum carried by the MDW. Our calculations are based on classical physics, but by dividing the numerically calculated angular momenta of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) pulses with the photon number, we can also study the single-quantum values. We show that accounting for the MDW in the analysis of the angular momentum gives for the field's share of the total angular momentum of light a quantized value that is generally a fraction of . In contrast, the total angular momentum of the mass-polariton (MP) quasiparticle, which is a coupled state of the field and the MDW, and also the elementary quantum of light in a medium, is an integer multiple of . Thus, the angular momentum of the MP has coupled field and medium components, which cannot be separately experimentally measured. This discovery is related to the previous observation that a bare photon including only the field part cannot propagate in a medium. The same coupling is found for orbital and spin angular momentum components. The physical picture of the angular momentum of light emerging from our theory is fundamentally more general than earlier theoretical models, in which the total angular momentum of light is assumed to be carried by the electromagnetic field only or by an electronic polariton state, which also involves dipolar electronic oscillations. These models cannot describe the MDW shift of atoms associated with light. We simulate the MDW of LG pulses in silicon and present a schematic experimental setup for measuring the contribution of the atomic MDW to the total angular momentum of light.

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Section: B Linear Polarizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass-polariton theory of sharing the total angular momentum of light between the field and matter

Partanen

Tulkki

2018

Phys. Rev. A

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“…The efficiency, on the other hand, can be enhanced by using heralded single photon source or post selections. We note that non-perfect technical issues, such as nonparaxial conditions and the nonuniform spatial profile of an LG beam for multiply-stacked rings, compromise either the fidelity or efficiency of HPI state preparation, but can still be optimized by, for instance, using beams with a longer Rayleigh range or equivalently larger beam waist and by optimizing the alignment 64 .…”

Section: Helical-phase-imprinted Subradiant Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally we study the scattering properties from the radially and azimuthally polarized excitations 64 , which allows us to further manipulate the local orientations of the atomic dipoles. The resonant dipole-dipole interactions in equations ( 11 ) and ( 12 ) can be straightforwardly generalized by replacing the term [1 − ] with [ − ] and correspondingly the term [1 − ] with [ − ].…”

Section: Light Scattering From Hpi Subradiant Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperative light scattering from helical-phase-imprinted atomic rings

Jen

Chang

Chen

2018

Sci Rep

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We theoretically investigate the light scattering of super- and subradiant states of an atomic ring prepared by single excitation with a photon which carries an orbital angular momentum (OAM). For excitations with linear polarizations, the helical phase imprinted (HPI) atomic ring presents a discrete C4 rotational symmetry when number of atoms N = 4n with integers n, while for circular polarizations with arbitrary N, the continuous and CN symmetries emerge for the super- and subradiant modes, respectively. The HPI superradiant modes predominantly scatter photons in the forward-backward direction, and the forward scattering can be further enhanced as atomic rings are stacked along the excitation direction. The HPI subradiant modes then preferentially scatter photons in the transversal directions, and when rings are stacked concentrically and on a plane, crossover from sub- to superradiance is observed which leads to splitting and localization of the far-field scattering patterns in the polar angle. The HPI super- and subradiant states are thus detectable through measuring the far-field radiation patterns, which further allow quantum storage and detection of a single photon with an OAM.

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“…The momentum and angular momentum of light continue to be subject of intense research as demonstrated by recent investigations of these quantities in vacuum, 1,2 in photonic materials, [3][4][5][6] in the near-field regime, [7][8][9][10] and also in the quantum domain. 11 In the case of continuous media, the experiments studying the momentum transfer between the electromagnetic field and the medium have mainly focused on the interaction of light with liquids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of an experimental setup for the measurement of light-driven atomic mass density waves in a silicon crystal

Partanen

Tulkki

2019

Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XVI

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The recently introduced mass-polariton (MP) theory of light describes light in a medium as a coupled state of the field and matter [Phys. Rev. A 95, 063850 (2017)]. In the MP theory, the optical force density drives forward an atomic mass density wave (MDW) that accompanies electromagnetic waves in a medium. The MDW is necessary for the fulfilment of the conservation laws and the Lorentz covariance of light. In silicon at wavelength λ 0 = 1550 nm, the atomic MDW carries 92% of the total momentum and angular momentum of light. The MDW of a light pulse having field energy E propagating in a dielectric also transfers a net mass equal to δM = (n p n g − 1)E/c 2 , where n p and n g are the phase and group refractive indices. In this work, we present a schematic experimental setup for the measurement of the MDW in a silicon crystal. This setup overcomes many challenges that have been present in previously introduced setups and that have made the experimental observation of the MDW effect difficult due to its smallness in comparison with other effects, such as the momentum transfer by absorption and reflections. The present setup also overcomes challenges with elastic relaxation effects while extending possible measurement time scales beyond the time scale of sound waves in the setup geometry. For the proposed setup, we also compare the predictions of the MP theory of light to the predictions of the conventional Minkowski theory, where the total momentum of light is carried by the electromagnetic field. We also aim at optimizing experimental studies of the MDW effect using the proposed setup.

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Manipulating orbital angular momentum of light with tailored in-plane polarization states

Cited by 22 publications

References 61 publications

Mass-polariton theory of sharing the total angular momentum of light between the field and matter

Mass-polariton theory of sharing the total angular momentum of light between the field and matter

Cooperative light scattering from helical-phase-imprinted atomic rings

Design of an experimental setup for the measurement of light-driven atomic mass density waves in a silicon crystal

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