Propagation of a stochastic electromagnetic vortex beam in right- and left-handed materials

Abstract

Based on the generalized diffraction integral formula for an optical system consisting of right- and left-handed materials, an analytical expression for the elements of the 2 × 2 cross-spectral density matrix of a stochastic electromagnetic vortex beam propagating through such an optical system is derived. Numerical examples illustrate that the source values of the spectral density, the spectral degree of coherence, and the spectral degree of polarization can be reconstructed by passing the beam through two alternating layers, RHM and LHM. Furthermore, we find that by varying the refractive index ratio of the materials, the position of the reconstructing plane can be modulated significantly. It is also interesting to find that a dark channel can be generated by choosing appropriate values of the topological charge and the thickness of each layer.