98 research outputs found
Optical spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in inhomogeneous anisotropic media
We demonstrate experimentally an optical process in which the spin angular
momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital
angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wavefront
helicity controlled by the input polarization. This phenomenon requires the
interaction of light with matter that is both optically inhomogeneous and
anisotropic. The underlying physics is also associated with the so-called
Pancharatnam-Berry geometrical phases involved in any inhomogeneous
transformation of the optical polarization
A Simple Analytical Model of the Angular Momentum Transformation in Strongly Focused Light Beams
A ray-optics model is proposed to describe the vector beam transformation in
a strongly focusing optical system. In contrast to usual approaches basing on
the focused field distribution near the focal plane, we employ the transformed
beam pattern formed immediately near the exit pupil. In this cross section,
details of the output field distribution are of minor physical interest but
proper allowance is made for transformation of the incident beam polarization
state. This enables to obtain the spin and orbital angular momentum
representations which are valid everywhere in the transformed beam space.
Simple analytical results are available for the transversely homogeneous
circularly polarized incident beam limited only by the circular aperture.
Behavior of the spin and orbital angular momenta of the output beam and their
dependences on the focusing strength (aperture angle) are analyzed. The
obtained analytical results are in good qualitative and reasonable quantitative
agreement to the calculation performed for the spatially inhomogeneous Gaussian
and Laguerre-Gaussian beams. In application to Laguerre-Gaussian beams, the
model provides possibility for analyzing the angular momentum transformation in
beams already possessing some mixture of the spin and orbital angular momenta.
The model supplies efficient and physically transparent means for qualitative
analysis of the spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion. It can be
generalized to incident beams with complicated spatial and polarization
structure.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. The paper has appeared as an attempt to clearly
understand transformations of the light beam polarization in the course of
strong focusing. It provides description of the optical vortex formation
after focusing a circularly polarized beam and explains why the the orbital
angular momentum emerges in the focused bea
Generation of a wave packet tailored to efficient free space excitation of a single atom
We demonstrate the generation of an optical dipole wave suitable for the
process of efficiently coupling single quanta of light and matter in free
space. We employ a parabolic mirror for the conversion of a transverse beam
mode to a focused dipole wave and show the required spatial and temporal
shaping of the mode incident onto the mirror. The results include a proof of
principle correction of the parabolic mirror's aberrations. For the application
of exciting an atom with a single photon pulse we demonstrate the creation of a
suitable temporal pulse envelope. We infer coupling strengths of 89% and
success probabilities of up to 87% for the application of exciting a single
atom for the current experimental parameters.Comment: to be published in Europ. Phys. J.
Photon-Atom Coupling with Parabolic Mirrors
Efficient coupling of light to single atomic systems has gained considerable
attention over the past decades. This development is driven by the continuous
growth of quantum technologies. The efficient coupling of light and matter is
an enabling technology for quantum information processing and quantum
communication. And indeed, in recent years much progress has been made in this
direction. But applications aside, the interaction of photons and atoms is a
fundamental physics problem. There are various possibilities for making this
interaction more efficient, among them the apparently 'natural' attempt of
mode-matching the light field to the free-space emission pattern of the atomic
system of interest. Here we will describe the necessary steps of implementing
this mode-matching with the ultimate aim of reaching unit coupling efficiency.
We describe the use of deep parabolic mirrors as the central optical element of
a free-space coupling scheme, covering the preparation of suitable modes of the
field incident onto these mirrors as well as the location of an atom at the
mirror's focus. Furthermore, we establish a robust method for determining the
efficiency of the photon-atom coupling.Comment: Book chapter in compilation "Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction"
published by Springer in 2015, edited by A. Predojevic and M. W. Mitchell,
ISBN 9783319192307, http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319192307. Only
change to version1: now with hyperlinks to arXiv eprints of other book
chapters mentioned in this on
Plasma redox status is impaired in the portacaval shunted rat – the risk of the reduced antioxidant ability
Metasurface holograms reaching 80% efficiency
Surfaces covered by ultrathin plasmonic structures—so-called metasurfaces—have recently been shown to be capable of completely controlling the phase of light, representing a new paradigm for the design of innovative optical elements such as ultrathin flat lenses, directional couplers for surface plasmon polaritons and wave plate vortex beam generation. Among the various types of metasurfaces, geometric metasurfaces, which consist of an array of plasmonic nanorods with spatially varying orientations, have shown superior phase control due to the geometric nature of their phase profile. Metasurfaces have recently been used to make computer-generated holograms, but the hologram efficiency remained too low at visible wavelengths for practical purposes. Here, we report the design and realization of a geometric metasurface hologram reaching diffraction efficiencies of 80% at 825 nm and a broad bandwidth between 630 nm and 1,050 nm. The 16-level-phase computer-generated hologram demonstrated here combines the advantages of a geometric metasurface for the superior control of the phase profile and of reflectarrays for achieving high polarization conversion efficiency. Specifically, the design of the hologram integrates a ground metal plane with a geometric metasurface that enhances the conversion efficiency between the two circular polarization states, leading to high diffraction efficiency without complicating the fabrication process. Because of these advantages, our strategy could be viable for various practical holographic applications
Serum metabonomics analysis of quercetin against the toxicity induced by cadmium in rats
RENOVASCULAR HYPERSENSITIVITY TO NORADRENALINE IN DIETARY-INDUCED HYPERCHOLESTEROLAEMIA IN BABOONS
Probing mechanical heterogeneity in chondrocytes using passive microrheology
Characterising chondrocytes mechanics is important for understanding mechanotransduction. The bulk viscoelastic response of chondrocytes have been measured. However, their mechanical properties have not been resolved on a subcellular scale. Microrheolgy is a technique in which the mechanical properties of a material are found by analysing the Mean Square Displacement (MSD) of tracerparticles. Microrheology can resolve mechanical properties with subcellular resolution. However, a limitation of microrheology is that large sequences of images of the particles are required for accurate measurements. These are not always available due to particles moving out of focus and photobleaching. This
paper presents a microrheology-based study on mechanical heterogeneity in chondrocytes using short sequences of images. Bovine Articular chondrocytes were seeded into agarose constructs [2]. The mitochondria were fluorescently labeled and imaged every 30 seconds for 15 minutes with a confocal microscope. Digital Image Correlation was used
to quantify the motion of the mitochondria and their MSDs were calculated. An average MSD was found for every cell and the variability in mitochondrial motion was obtained by comparing the distribution of measured MSDs to the distribution of MSDs obtained from Monte-Carlo simulations of particles embedded within heterogeneous media. Measured mitochondrial motion was consistent with directed diffusion. The diffusion coefficient of the mitochondria varied by about 50% within single cells. Calculations based on statistical mechanics showed that directed diffusion can only occur if the cytoplasm behaves like a fluid on large time-scales. It is probable that this viscous behavior is connected to the non-equilibrium nature of the cytoskeleton
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