Polarization oscillations in a media with inhomogeneous anisotropy and gyrotropy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The problem of polarized light propagation in the media with weak inhomogeneous anisotropy and gyrotropy (natural and induced) is considered. It is shown that the polarization state in such media undergoes spatial oscillations, which amplitude is maximum when changes of dielectric permeability and gyrotropy are same. Keywords: polarization, inhomogeneous, anisotropy, gyrotropy, optical-m echanical analogy. 1. INTRODUCTION The light wave polarization state is changes, when it prop agates in an inhomogeneous media. Therefore, there is a possibility of managing the light polarization state by induced inhomogeneity (with the external influence). That is why the study of such spatial dynamics of the lights polarization state in different media has a great practical importance. Consideration of light polarization state spatial dynamics in inhomogeneous anisotropic media is of a great interest in various areas of physics. Propagation of light waves in photonic crystals and liquid crystals, light propagation through the cholesteric liquid crystal layer containing defects managed by external electric field, splitting of particle beams with spin in magnetic fields, polarization technique application in a biomedical research – this is the incomplete list of prob-lems concerning the theory of wave processes in weak anisotropic media [1-4]. On the other hand, one can control the polarization state of light by changing parameters of a media with the help of external influence. That’s why the study of peculiarities of the propagation of a plane monochromatic wave in media with spatial inhomogeneity (in particular, of anisotropy and gyrotropy) is of great interest also in the various fields of physics.The analytical solution of the wave equation in such media is connected with certain difficulties even for slow change of media parameters and application of the approached methods. And here analogy between mechanics and optics, which has played a significant role in the development of modern concepts of physics, comes to the aid [5]. The resonance phenomena in two level systems can serve as examples [6]. These include the tasks associated with the propagation of the polarized waves in media with spatial inhomogeneous anisotropy and gyrotropy. They are desc ribed mathematically by the same equations that describe the behavior of a two level system in stationary fields [7,8]. The above mentioned analogy also allows using the well-developed techniques from the theory of quasi-resonant inter action of radiation with a two- level atom. This is confirmed by recently published works. In particular, in [9,10] adiabatic rotation and achromatic polarization conversion in inho-mogeneous anisotropic media are studied. The treatment is based on the analogy of the equations describing the spatial *leon@ysu.am ; phone; +37493556383