Bloch oscillations for circularly polarized light

Abstract

All previous investigations on the Bloch oscillations of waves focus on scalar waves. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, the existence of Bloch oscillations of vector fields for circularly polarized light (CPL) propagating through a designed liquid crystal structure. To obtain the Wannier–Stark ladder of the CPL, we have designed a cholesteric liquid crystal structure with spatially varying pitch. The Bloch oscillations of the CPL have been observed in such a structure by exact numerical simulations. We have also shown that such a phenomenon can be easily detected in time-resolved reflection experiments.