Measurement of the Pancharatnam–Berry phase in two-beam interference

Abstract

Young’s dual-pinhole interference experiment with arbitrary fully correlated and polarized vector light fields leads to a Pancharatnam–Berry geometric phase that is related to the associated dynamical phase. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the dynamical phase across the interference pattern can be deciphered from the total phase, thereby leaving only the geometric phase. Our results constitute the first genuine interferometric phase measurements that yield the Pancharatnam–Berry geometric phase in Young’s two-beam interference setup.