398 research outputs found
Trans-spectral orbital angular momentum transfer via four-wave mixing in Rb vapor
We report the transfer of phase structure and, in particular, of orbital angular momentum from near-infrared pump light to blue light generated in a four-wave-mixing process in Rb-85 vapor. The intensity and phase profile of the two pump lasers at 780 and 776 nm, shaped by a spatial light modulator, influences the phase and intensity profile of light at 420 nm, which is generated in a subsequent coherent cascade. In particular, we observe that the phase profile associated with orbital angular momentum is transferred entirely from the pump light to the blue. Pumping with more complicated light profiles results in the excitation of spatial modes in the blue that depend strongly on phase matching, thus demonstrating the parametric nature of the mode transfer. These results have implications on the inscription and storage of phase information in atomic gases
Comparison of beam generation techniques using a phase only spatial light modulator
Whether in art or for QR codes, images have proven to be
both powerful and efficient carriers of information. Spatial light modulators
allow an unprecedented level of control over the generation of optical fields
by using digital holograms. There is no unique way of obtaining a desired
light pattern however, leaving many competing methods for hologram
generation. In this paper, we test six hologram generation techniques
in the creation of a variety of modes as well as a photographic image:
rating the methods according to obtained mode quality and power. All
techniques compensate for a non-uniform mode profile of the input laser
and incorporate amplitude scaling. We find that all methods perform well
and stress the importance of appropriate spatial filtering. We expect these
results to be of interest to those working in the contexts of microscopy,
optical trapping or quantum image creation
Tight focal spots using azimuthally polarised light from a Fresnel cone
When focusing a light beam at high numerical aperture, the resulting electric
field profile in the focal plane depends on the transverse polarisation
profile, as interference between different parts of the beam needs to be taken
into account. It is well known that radial polarised light produces a
longitudinal polarisation component and can be focused below the conventional
diffraction limit for homogeneously polarised light, and azimuthally polarised
light that carries one unit of angular momentum can achieve even tighter focal
spots. This is of interest for example for enhancing resolution in scanning
microscopy. There are numerous ways to generate such polarisation structures,
however, setups can be expensive and usually rely on birefringent components,
hence prohibiting broadband operation. We have recently demonstrated a passive,
low-cost technique using a simple glass cone (Fresnel cone) to generate beams
with structured polarisation. We show here that the polarisation structure
generated by Fresnel cones focuses better than radial polarised light at all
numerical apertures. Furthermore, we investigate in detail the application of
polarised light structures for two-photon microscopy. Specifically we
demonstrate a method that allows us to generate the desired polarisation
structure at the back aperture of the microscope by pre-compensating any
detrimental phase shifts using a combination of waveplates
Violation of Leggett inequalities in orbital angular momentum subspaces
We report an experimental test of Leggett's non-local hidden variable theory in an orbital angular momentum (OAM) state space of light. We show that the correlations we observe are in conflict with Leggett's model, thus excluding a particular class of non-local hidden variable theories for the first time in a non-polarization state space. It is known that the violation of the Leggett inequality becomes stronger as more detection settings are used. The required measurements become feasible in an OAM subspace, and we demonstrate this by testing the inequality using three and four settings. We observe excellent agreement with quantum predictions and a violation of five and six standard deviations, respectively, compared to Leggett's non-local hidden variable theory
Evidence of slow-light effects from rotary drag of structured beams
Self-pumped slow light, typically observed within laser gain media, is created by an intense pump field. By observing the rotation of a structured laser beam upon transmission through a spinning ruby window, we show that the slowing effect applies equally to both the dark and bright regions of the incident beam. This result is incompatible with slow-light models based on simple pulse-reshaping arising from optical bleaching. Instead, the slow-light effect arises from the long upper-state lifetime of the ruby and a saturation of the absorption, from which the Kramers–Kronig relation gives a highly dispersive phase index and a correspondingly high group index
Graphene-like optical light field and its interaction with two-level atoms
The theoretical basis leading to the creation of a light field with a hexagonal honeycomb structure resembling graphene is considered along with its experimental realization and its interaction with atoms. It is argued that associated with such a light field is an optical dipole potential which leads to the diffraction of the atoms, but the details depend on whether the transverse spread of the atomic wave packet is larger than the transverse dimensions of the optical lattice (resonant Kapitza-Dirac effect) or smaller (optical Stern-Gerlach effect). Another effect in this context involves the creation of gauge fields due to the Berry phase acquired by the atom moving in the light field. The experimental realization of the light field with a honeycomb hexagonal structure is described using holographic methods and we proceed to explore the atom diffraction in the Kapitza-Dirac regime as well as the optical Stern-Gerlach regime, leading to momentum distributions with characteristic but different hexagonal structures. The artificial gauge fields too are shown to have the same hexagonal spatial structure and their magnitude can be significantly large. The effects are discussed with reference to typical parameters for the atoms and the fields
Enhanced frequency up-conversion in Rb vapor
We demonstrate highly efficient generation of coherent 420nm light via
up-conversion of near-infrared lasers in a hot rubidium vapor cell. By
optimizing pump polarizations and frequencies we achieve a single-pass
conversion efficiency of 260% per Watt, significantly higher than in previous
experiments. A full exploration of the coherent light generation and
fluorescence as a function of both pump frequencies reveals that coherent blue
light is generated close to 85Rb two-photon resonances, as predicted by theory,
but at high vapor pressure is suppressed in spectral regions that do not
support phase matching or exhibit single-photon Kerr refraction. Favorable
scaling of our current 1mW blue beam power with additional pump power is
predicted.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Modified to include referees' improvement
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