Revealing the invariance of vectorial structured light in complex media

Nape, Isaac; Singh, Keshaan; Klug, Asher; Buono, Wagner Tavares; Rosales‐Guzmán, Carmelo; McWilliam, Amy; Franke‐Arnold, Sonja; Kritzinger, Ané; Forbes, Patricia B.C.; Dudley, Angela; Forbes, Andrew

doi:10.1038/s41566-022-01023-w

Cited by 68 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 72 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our analysis only considered scalar modes, whereas it is clear that vectorial superpositions would also be eigenmodes of this channel. In this way, the invariance of the inhomogeneity of vectorial light in complex channels 21 could be generalized to the invariance of all properties of the field, an appealing notion for energy transport and imaging through complex systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vectorial combinations of such beams create inhomogeneous polarization structures 16 – 18 and also have found applications in free-space links 19 , 20 . Although these structured light fields hold tremendous potential for free-space optical communication, they are distorted by atmospheric turbulence as a phase perturbation in the near field and an amplitude, phase, and polarization perturbation in the far field 21 . This corrects the myth that vectorial light is immune to atmospheric turbulence by virtue of its polarization components—it is not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Robust structured light in atmospheric turbulence

2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Structured light is routinely used in free-space optical communication channels, both classical and quantum, where information is encoded in the spatial structure of the mode for increased bandwidth. Both real-world and experimentally simulated turbulence conditions have revealed that free-space structured light modes are perturbed in some manner by turbulence, resulting in both amplitude and phase distortions, and consequently, much attention has focused on whether one mode type is more robust than another, but with seemingly inconclusive and contradictory results. We present complex forms of structured light that are invariant under propagation through the atmosphere: the true eigenmodes of atmospheric turbulence. We provide a theoretical procedure for obtaining these eigenmodes and confirm their invariance both numerically and experimentally. Although we have demonstrated the approach on atmospheric turbulence, its generality allows it to be extended to other channels too, such as aberrated paths, underwater, and in optical fiber.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust structured light in atmospheric turbulence

2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We anticipate that NDSTPs will inspire potential applications such as light-matter interactions, superresolution microscopy, telecommunications, remote sensing and lidar. For instance, optical communications schemes based on topologically structured light, such as the ND-STPs, could lead to high capacity information transfer that does not suffer from divergence and is robust upon propagation through perturbing media [51,52].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nondiffracting Supertoroidal Light Pulses: Optical "Kármán Vortex Streets"

Shen

Papasimakis

Zheludev

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Supertoroidal light pulses, as space-time nonseparable electromagnetic waves, provided unique super-resolution topological properties including skyrmionic configurations, fractal-like singularities, and energy backflow in free space, which however do not survive upon propagation. Here we introduce the nondiffracting supertoroidal pulses (NDSTPs), propagation-robust skyrmionic and vortex-ring field that endure the singular configurations over arbitrary propagation distances. Intriguingly, the field structure of NDSTPs has a strong similarity with a von Kármán vortex street, a pattern of swirling vortices in fluid and gas dynamics, as the "singing" of suspended telephone lines in wind. NDSTPs allow the study of the propagation dynamics of electromagnetic skyrmionic fields and will be of interest as directed energy channels for information transfer applications.

show abstract

“…Light with non-uniform polarization across the transverse plane exhibits non-separable correlations between polarization and spatial modes 20 . These vector beams recently have disclosed unique potentials in metrology 21 – 23 , communication 24 , 25 , optoelectronics 26 , optomechanics 27 , and quantum information 28 , 29 . However, their characterization still relies on bulky polarization optics 30 – 34 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-shot polarimetry of vector beams by supervised learning

Pierangeli

Conti

2023

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

States of light encoding multiple polarizations - vector beams - offer unique capabilities in metrology and communication. However, their practical application is limited by the lack of methods for measuring many polarizations in a scalable and compact way. Here we demonstrate polarimetry of vector beams in a single shot without any polarization optics. We map the beam polarization content into a spatial intensity distribution through light scattering and exploit supervised learning for single-shot measurements of multiple polarizations. We characterize structured light encoding up to nine polarizations with accuracy beyond 95% on each Stokes parameter. The method also allows us to classify beams with an unknown number of polarization modes, a functionality missing in conventional techniques. Our findings enable a fast and compact polarimeter for polarization-structured light, a general tool that may radically impact optical devices for sensing, imaging, and computing.

show abstract

Revealing the invariance of vectorial structured light in complex media

Cited by 68 publications

References 72 publications

Robust structured light in atmospheric turbulence

Robust structured light in atmospheric turbulence

Nondiffracting Supertoroidal Light Pulses: Optical "Kármán Vortex Streets"

Single-shot polarimetry of vector beams by supervised learning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About