123 research outputs found
Radio Astronomical Polarimetry and the Lorentz Group
In radio astronomy the polarimetric properties of radiation are often
modified during propagation and reception. Effects such as Faraday rotation,
receiver cross-talk, and differential amplification act to change the state of
polarized radiation. A general description of such transformations is useful
for the investigation of these effects and for the interpretation and
calibration of polarimetric observations. Such a description is provided by the
Lorentz group, which is intimately related to the transformation properties of
polarized radiation. In this paper the transformations that commonly arise in
radio astronomy are analyzed in the context of this group. This analysis is
then used to construct a model for the propagation and reception of radio
waves. The implications of this model for radio astronomical polarimetry are
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa
Stretching and squeezing of sessile dielectric drops by the optical radiation pressure
We study numerically the deformation of sessile dielectric drops immersed in
a second fluid when submitted to the optical radiation pressure of a continuous
Gaussian laser wave. Both drop stretching and drop squeezing are investigated
at steady state where capillary effects balance the optical radiation pressure.
A boundary integral method is implemented to solve the axisymmetric Stokes flow
in the two fluids. In the stretching case, we find that the drop shape goes
from prolate to near-conical for increasing optical radiation pressure whatever
the drop to beam radius ratio and the refractive index contrast between the two
fluids. The semi-angle of the cone at equilibrium decreases with the drop to
beam radius ratio and is weakly influenced by the index contrast. Above a
threshold value of the radiation pressure, these "optical cones" become
unstable and a disruption is observed. Conversely, when optically squeezed, the
drop shifts from an oblate to a concave shape leading to the formation of a
stable "optical torus". These findings extend the electrohydrodynamics approach
of drop deformation to the much less investigated "optical domain" and reveal
the openings offered by laser waves to actively manipulate droplets at the
micrometer scale
Propagation of transverse intensity correlations of a two-photon state
The propagation of transverse spatial correlations of photon pairs through
arbitrary first-order linear optical systems is studied experimentally and
theoretically using the fractional Fourier transform. Highly-correlated photon
pairs in an EPR-like state are produced by spontaneous parametric
down-conversion and subject to optical fractional Fourier transform systems. It
is shown that the joint detection probability can display either correlation,
anti-correlation, or no correlation, depending on the sum of the orders
and of the transforms of the down-converted photons. We
present analytical results for the propagation of the perfectly correlated EPR
state, and numerical results for the propagation of the two-photon state
produced from parametric down-conversion. We find good agreement between theory
and experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, to appear PR
Near axisymmetric partial wetting using interface-localized liquid dielectrophoresis
The wetting of solid surfaces can be modified by altering the surface free energy balance between the solid, liquid, and vapour phases. Liquid dielectrophoresis (L-DEP) can produce wetting on normally non-wetting surfaces, without modification of the surface topography or chemistry. L-DEP is a bulk force acting on the dipoles of a dielectric liquid and is not normally considered to be a localized effect acting at the interface between the liquid and a solid or other fluid. However, if this force is induced by a non-uniform electric field across a solid -liquid interface, it can be used to enhance and control the wetting of a dielectric liquid. Recently, it was reported theoretically and experimentally that this approach can cause a droplet of oil to spread along parallel interdigitated electrodes thus forming a stripe of liquid. Here we show that by using spiral shaped electrodes actuated with four 90Âş successive phase shifted signals, a near axisymmetric spreading of droplets can be achieved. Experimental observations show that the induced wetting can achieve film formation, an effect not possible with electrowetting. We show that the spreading is reversible thus enabling a wide range of partial wetting droplet states to be achieved in a controllable manner. Furthermore, we find that the cosine of the contact angle has a quadratic dependence on applied voltage during spreading and deduce a scaling law for the dependence of the strength of the effect on the electrode size
Voltage-programmable liquid optical interface
Recently, there has been intense interest in photonic devices based on microfluidics, including displays and refractive tunable microlenses and optical beamsteerers, that work using the principle of electrowetting. Here, we report a novel approach to optical devices in which static wrinkles are produced at the surface of a thin film of oil as a result of dielectrophoretic forces. We have demonstrated this voltage-programmable surface wrinkling effect in periodic devices with pitch lengths of between 20 and 240 µm and with response times of less than 40 µs. By a careful choice of oils, it is possible to optimize either for high-amplitude sinusoidal wrinkles at micrometre-scale pitches or more complex non-sinusoidal profiles with higher Fourier components at longer pitches. This opens up the possibility of developing rapidly responsive voltage-programmable, polarization-insensitive transmission and reflection diffraction devices and arbitrary surface profile optical devices
Stokes Parameters as a Minkowskian Four-vector
It is noted that the Jones-matrix formalism for polarization optics is a
six-parameter two-by-two representation of the Lorentz group. It is shown that
the four independent Stokes parameters form a Minkowskian four-vector, just
like the energy-momentum four-vector in special relativity. The optical filters
are represented by four-by-four Lorentz-transformation matrices. This
four-by-four formalism can deal with partial coherence described by the Stokes
parameters. A four-by-four matrix formulation is given for decoherence effects
on the Stokes parameters, and a possible experiment is proposed. It is shown
also that this Lorentz-group formalism leads to optical filters with a symmetry
property corresponding to that of two-dimensional Euclidean transformations.Comment: RevTeX, 22 pages, no figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Amplitude scaling of a static wrinkle at an oil-air interface created by dielectrophoresis forces
Direct nitric oxide signal transduction via nitrosylation of iron-sulfur centers in the SoxR transcription activator
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