Abstract
The unique superiority of transformation optics devices designed from coordinate transformation is their capability of recovering both ray trajectory and optical path length in light manipulation. However, very few experiments have been done so far to verify this dual-recovery property from viewpoints of both ray trajectory and optical path length simultaneously. The experimental difficulties arise from the fact that most previous optical transformation optics devices only work at the nano-scale; the lack of intercomparison between data from both optical path length and ray trajectory measurement in these experiments obscured the fact that the ray path was subject to a subwavelength lateral shift that was otherwise not easily perceivable and, instead, was pointed out theoretically [B. Zhang et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 233903, 2010]. Here, we use a simple macroscopic transformation optics device of phase-preserved optical elevator, which is a typical birefringent optical phenomenon that can virtually lift an optical image by a macroscopic distance, to demonstrate decisively the unique optical path length preservation property of transformation optics. The recovery of ray trajectory is first determined with no lateral shift in the reflected ray. The phase preservation is then verified with incoherent white-light interferometry without ambiguity and phase unwrapping.
Highlights
Transformation optics [1, 2] has provided a new perspective with novel physical insights in light manipulation utilizing the invariance property of Maxwell’s equations under coordinate transformations [3, 4]
The unique superiority of transformation optics devices designed from coordinate transformation is their capability of recovering both ray trajectory and optical path length in light manipulation
The experimental difficulties arise from the fact that most previous optical transformation optics devices only work at the nano-scale; the lack of intercomparison between data from both optical path length and ray trajectory measurement in these experiments obscured the fact that the ray path was subject to a subwavelength lateral shift that was otherwise not perceivable and, instead, was pointed out theoretically [B
Summary
Transformation optics [1, 2] has provided a new perspective with novel physical insights in light manipulation utilizing the invariance property of Maxwell’s equations under coordinate transformations [3, 4]. Most previous experiments focused on demonstrating the ray trajectory recovery, while the optical path length preservation property was often neglected because of the difficulty in phase measurement. To convincingly demonstrate the recovery of both ray trajectory and optical path length, one must consider possible errors in the measurement, which scale with the size of the device itself. We use a simple transformation optics device of phase-preserved optical elevator that can expand the corresponding electromagnetic space and experimentally demonstrate its capability of recovering both the ray trajectory and optical path length. As an intermediate step for a more general transformation which led to the previously highlighted carpet cloaks [11, 12, 16,17,18] This simple device can provide a solid foundation for related transformation techniques in the development of transformation optics
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