Direction Of Light Propagation Research Articles

A Reversed Inverse Faraday Effect

The inverse Faraday effect is a magneto‐optical process allowing the magnetization of matter by an optical excitation carrying a non‐zero spin. In particular, a right circular polarization generates a magnetization in the direction of light propagation and a left circular polarization in the opposite direction to this propagation. Herein, it demonstrates that by manipulating the spin density of light, i.e., its polarization, in a plasmonic nanostructure, a reversed inverse Faraday effect is generated. A right circular polarization will generate a magnetization in the opposite direction of the light propagation, a left circular polarization in the direction of propagation. Also, it demonstrates that this new physical phenomenon is chiral, generating a strong magnetic field only for one helicity of the light, the opposite helicity producing this effect only for the mirror structure. This new optical concept opens the way to the generation of magnetic fields with unpolarized light, finding application in the ultrafast manipulation of magnetic domains and processes, such as spin precession, spin currents, and waves, magnetic skyrmion or magnetic circular dichroism, with direct applications in data storage and processing technologies.

Asymmetric metasurface photodetectors for single-shot quantitative phase imaging

Abstract The visualization of pure phase objects by wavefront sensing has important applications ranging from surface profiling to biomedical microscopy, and generally requires bulky and complicated setups involving optical spatial filtering, interferometry, or structured illumination. Here we introduce a new type of image sensors that are uniquely sensitive to the local direction of light propagation, based on standard photodetectors coated with a specially designed plasmonic metasurface that creates an asymmetric dependence of responsivity on angle of incidence around the surface normal. The metasurface design, fabrication, and angle-sensitive operation are demonstrated using a simple photoconductive detector platform. The measurement results, combined with computational imaging calculations, are then used to show that a standard camera or microscope based on these metasurface pixels can directly visualize phase objects without any additional optical elements, with state-of-the-art minimum detectable phase contrasts below 10 mrad. Furthermore, the combination of sensors with equal and opposite angular response on the same pixel array can be used to perform quantitative phase imaging in a single shot, with a customized reconstruction algorithm which is also developed in this work. By virtue of its system miniaturization and measurement simplicity, the phase imaging approach enabled by these devices is particularly significant for applications involving space-constrained and portable setups (such as point-of-care imaging and endoscopy) and measurements involving freely moving objects.

Anomalous plasmon coupling and Fano resonance under structured light

Structured light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) opens up a new physical dimension for studying light–matter interactions. Despite this, the complex fields created by OAM beams still remain largely unexplored in terms of their effects on surface plasmons. This paper presents a revelation of anomalous plasmon excitations in single particles and plasmon couplings of neighboring nanorods under OAM beams, which are forbidden using non-OAM sources. The plasmon excitation of single nanoparticles is determined both by photon spin angular momentum (SAM) and OAM and influenced by the locations of the nanoparticles. Specifically, when SAM and OAM are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, a pure plasmon excitation along light propagation direction is achieved. Two plasmon dipoles show end-to-end antibonding coupling and side-by-side bounding coupling, which are the opposite of the typical couplings. Furthermore, we observe Fano resonance with a nanorod dimer: one aligned along light propagation direction acting as the bright mode and the other aligned along the global polarization direction of light acting as the dark mode, which is the opposite of the usual plasmonic Fano resonance. By taking advantage of the unique property of the OAM source, this investigation presents a novel way to control and study surface plasmons, and the research of plasmon behavior with OAM would open new avenues for controlling electromagnetic waves and enriching the spectroscopies with more degrees of freedom.

Sonication-assisted liquid phase exfoliation of two-dimensional CrTe3 under inert conditions

Liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) has been used for the successful fabrication of nanosheets from a large number of van der Waals materials. While this allows to study fundamental changes of material properties’ associated with reduced dimensions, it also changes the chemistry of many materials due to a significant increase of the effective surface area, often accompanied with enhanced reactivity and accelerated oxidation. To prevent material decomposition, LPE and processing in inert atmosphere have been developed, which enables the preparation of pristine nanomaterials, and to systematically study compositional changes over time for different storage conditions. Here, we demonstrate the inert exfoliation of the oxidation-sensitive van der Waals crystal, CrTe3. The pristine nanomaterial was purified and size-selected by centrifugation, nanosheet dimensions in the fractions quantified by atomic force microscopy and studied by Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and photo spectroscopic measurements. We find a dependence of the relative intensities of the CrTe3 Raman modes on the propagation direction of the incident light, which prevents a correlation of the Raman spectral profile to the nanosheet dimensions. XPS and EDX reveal that the contribution of surface oxides to the spectra is reduced after exfoliation compared to the bulk material. Further, the decomposition mechanism of the nanosheets was studied by time-dependent extinction measurements after water titration experiments to initially dry solvents, which suggest that water plays a significant role in the material decomposition.

Design of a new 2-channel demultiplexer based on Photonic Crystal Fiber

As miniaturization becomes a critical need in many integrated applications, various researchers have primarily focused on creating optical systems and components based on photonic crystal fiber during the past few decades. This article describes a brand-new 1x2 power demultiplexer idea using photonic crystal fiber as a basis. The luminous connection between the center core and coherent laser sources is made possible by inserting defects in the structure of the photonic crystal fiber (PCF) to change the silica and air index. Simulation results will show that two optical signals, 1.46 µm and 1.48 µm, at the input of a PCF structure can be separated into two parts at the output. The novel design controls the direction of light propagation between layers by swapping various air-hole locations using pure silica layers along the length of the fiber. In optical systemic communications, wavelength demultiplexers are crucial components. They act as data distributors and generate several outputs with a single input. This article aims to propose a novel structure with the best performance by introducing flaws in the structure to guide light according to the desired path and demultiplex our signals. By employing a DWDM system, this device may help increase the data bitrate.

Enhanced Deconvolution and Denoise Method for Scattering Image Restoration

Light scattering is a common physical phenomenon in nature. The scattering medium will randomly change the direction of incident light propagation, making it difficult for traditional optical imaging methods to detect objects behind the scattering body. Wiener filtering deconvolution technology based on the optical memory effect has broad application prospects by virtue of its advantages, such as fast calculation speed and low cost. However, this method requires manual parameter adjustment, which is inefficient and cannot deal with the impact of real-scene noise. This paper proposes an improved Wiener filtering deconvolution method that improves the exposure dose during the speckle collection, can quickly obtain the optimal parameter during the calculation phase, and can be completed within 41.5 ms (for a 2448 × 2048 image). In addition, a neural network denoising model was proposed to address the noise issue in the deconvolution recovery results, resulting in an average improvement of 27.3% and 186.7% in PSNR and SSIM of the images, respectively. The work of this paper will play a role in achieving real-time high-quality imaging of scattering media and be helpful in studying the physical mechanisms of scattering imaging.

Perovskite Scintillators for Improved X‐ray Detection and Imaging

AbstractHalide perovskites (HPs) recently have emerged as one class of competitive scintillators for X‐ray detection and imaging owing to its high quantum efficiency, short decay time, superior X‐ray absorption capacity, low cost, and ease of crystal growth. The tunable structure and versatile chemical compositions of halide perovskites provide distinguishable advantages over traditional inorganic scintillators for optimizing scintillation performance. Since the first observation of the scintillation phenomenon in HPs, substantial efforts have been devoted to expanding the inventory of HP scintillators and regulating material properties. Understanding the relationship between the structure and scintillation properties of HP scintillators is essential for developing materials with improved X‐ray detection and imaging capacities. This review summarizes strategies for improving the light yield of HP scintillators and provides a roadmap for improving the X‐ray imaging performance. Additionally, methods for controlling the light propagation direction in HP scintillators are highlighted for improving X‐ray imaging resolution. Finally, we highlight the current challenge in HP scintillators and provide a perspective on the future development of this emerging scintillator.

Perovskite Scintillators for Improved X-ray Detection and Imaging.

Halide perovskites (HPs) recently have emerged as one class of competitive scintillators for X-ray detection and imaging owing to its high quantum efficiency, short decay time, superior X-ray absorption capacity, low cost, and ease of crystal growth. The tunable structure and versatile chemical compositions of halide perovskites provide distinguishable advantages over traditional inorganic scintillators for optimizing scintillation performance. Since the first observation of the scintillation phenomenon in HPs, substantial efforts have been devoted to expanding the inventory of HP scintillators and regulating material properties. Understanding the relationship between the structure and scintillation properties of HP scintillators is essential for developing materials with improved X-ray detection and imaging capacities. This review summarizes strategies for improving the light yield of HP scintillators and provides a roadmap for improving the X-ray imaging performance. Additionally, methods for controlling the light propagation direction in HP scintillators are highlighted for improving X-ray imaging resolution. Finally, we highlight the current challenge in HP scintillators and provide a perspective on the future development of this emerging scintillator.

Colinear focused laser differential interferometry and self-aligned focusing schlieren.

A colinear focused laser differential interferometer (FLDI) and self-aligned focusing schlieren (SAFS) system has been assembled and tested in the laboratory, using a turbulent jet of compressed air issuing from a small needle nozzle to provide a high frequency density object. Measurements verified that the coupling of the SAFS system onto the optical axis of the FLDI system had negligible influence on the FLDI system's data, including tests that assessed the influence of the inclusion of dichroic mirrors, dichroic mirror reflection angle, dichroic mirror positioning relative to the Wollaston prisms of the FLDI system, and SAFS light propagation direction. A qualitative comparison of the focusing ability of the two systems was made, and FLDI power spectral density estimates and SAFS spectral proper orthogonal decomposition were used for quantitative comparisons of the acoustic frequency of the jet, with good agreement between the two. The success of the system integration and resulting jet testing demonstrates the utility of this colinear, simultaneous FLDI/SAFS measurement system.

Linear and circular dichroisms of cholesteric liquid crystals in a longitudinal external magnetic field

ABSTRACT We investigated the properties of linear and circular dichroisms of cholesteric liquid crystal layer in external static magnetic field directed along helix axis. We showed that when the direction of light propagation and the direction of external magnetic field coincide, increasing the latter magnitude leads to a decrease in the linear dichroism, whereas when these directions are opposite, increasing the external magnetic field ( B e x t ) magnitude leads an increase in the linear dichroism. The presence of external magnetic field leads to the shift of circular dichroism curves both along wavelength axis and along dichroism axis. Then, we investigated the peculiarities of dichroism dependencies on B e x t for different wavelengths of incident light. We compared the dependence of circular dichroism on B e x t for a magnetically active cholesteric liquid crystal layer and an isotropic magnetically active layer and showed that while these dependencies are similar for wavelengths away from the photonic band gap, diffraction significantly affects these dependencies for wavelengths near and inside the photonic band gap. We investigated the evolution of spectra of linear and circular dichroisms at the change in B e x t , too. The results obtained can find application in the design of innovative polarised optoelectronic devices.

Observation of Rotation-Induced Light Localization in Waveguide Arrays

We study both experimentally and theoretically the propagation of light in the fs-laser written rotating square waveguide arrays and present the first experimental evidence of light localization induced by the rotation of periodic structure in the direction of light propagation. Such linear light localization occurs either in the corners of truncated square array, where it results from the interplay between the centrifugal effect and total internal reflection at the borders of truncated array, or in the center of array, where rotation creates effective attractive optical potential. The degree of localization of linear bulk and corner modes emerging due to the rotation increases with the increase of rotation frequency. Consequently, corner and bulk solitons in rotating waveguide arrays become thresholdless for sufficiently large rotation frequencies, in contrast to solitons in nonrotating arrays that exist only above the power threshold. Focusing nonlinearity enhances the localization degree of corner modes, but surprisingly initially it leads to broadening of bulk nonlinear states, followed by their relocalization at high input powers. Our results open new prospects for control of evolution of nonlinear multidimensional excitations by dynamically varying potentials.

A chiral inverse Faraday effect mediated by an inversely designed plasmonic antenna

Abstract The inverse Faraday effect is a magneto-optical process allowing the magnetization of matter by an optical excitation carrying a non-zero spin of light. This phenomenon was considered until now as symmetric; right or left circular polarizations generate magnetic fields oriented in the direction of light propagation or in the counter-propagating direction. Here, we demonstrate that by manipulating the spin density of light in a plasmonic nanostructure, we generate a chiral inverse Faraday effect, creating a strong magnetic field of 500 mT only for one helicity of the light, the opposite helicity producing this effect only for the mirror structure. This new optical concept opens the way to the generation of magnetic fields with unpolarized light, finding application in the ultrafast manipulation of magnetic domains and processes, such as spin precession, spin currents and waves, magnetic skyrmion or magnetic circular dichroism, with direct applications in data storage and data processing technologies.

Laser-Induced Chirality of Plasmonic Nanoparticles Embedded in Porous Matrix.

Chiral plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as promising objects for numerous applications in nanophotonics, optoelectronics, biosensing, chemistry, and pharmacy. Here, we propose a novel method to induce strong chirality in achiral ensembles of gold nanoparticles via irradiation with circularly-polarized light of a picosecond Nd:YAG laser. Embedding of gold nanoparticles into a nanoporous silicate matrix leads to the formation of a racemic mixture of metal nanoparticles of different chirality that is enhanced by highly asymmetric dielectric environment of the nanoporous matrix. Then, illumination with intense circularly-polarized light selectively modifies the particles with the chirality defined by the handedness of the laser light, while their "enantiomers" survive the laser action almost unaffected. This novel modification of the spectral hole burning technique leads to the formation of an ensemble of plasmonic metal nanoparticles that demonstrates circular dichroism up to 100 mdeg. An unforeseen peculiarity of the chiral nanostructures obtained in this way is that 2D and 3D nanostructures contribute almost equally to the observed circular dichroism signals. Thus, the circular dichroism is neither even nor odd under reversal of direction of light propagation. These findings will help guide the development of a passive optical modulator and nanoplatform for enhanced chiral sensing and catalysis.

Laser-assisted photoionization beyond the dipole approximation

We present a theoretical study of atomic laser-assisted photoionization emission (LAPE) beyond the dipole approximation. By considering the non-relativistic non-dipole strong-field approximation (non-dipole Gordon-Volkov wave function), we analyze the different contributions to the photoelectron spectrum (PES), which can be written in terms of intra- and intercycle factors. We find that not only does our non-dipole approach exhibit asymmetric emission in the direction of light propagation, but also allows emission in dipole-forbidden directions. The former feature can be rooted both in intra- and intercycle interference processes, whilst the latter stems from a dependence of the sideband energy on the emission angle with respect to the propagation direction. Our theoretical scheme, presented here for He atoms in the 1s quantum state, is general enough to be applied to other atomic species and field configurations.

Valley-optical absorption in planar transition metal dichalcogenide superlattices

In this study, we investigate the optical absorption of a planar superlattice comprising alternatively arranged two-dimensional Transition Metal DiChalcogenide semiconductors. Within a semi-classical model and using the Dirac-like equation in the presence of light interaction as a perturbation, we obtained the governing Hamiltonian. Using this Hamiltonian, we derived a fully analytical relationship for the absorption coefficient of the structure. By calculating the effective mass for different bands and using the Drude-Lorentz model, our approach is able to determine the oscillator strength and the effective refractive index of the structure. We found that the spin–orbit coupling has important effect on the absorption coefficient and energy bands where it reduces the absorption coefficient of the structure from typical value of 11.54 ({10}^{5}{mathrm{cm}}^{-1})–5.937({10}^{5}{mathrm{cm}}^{-1}), also the valence band experiences a significant blue shift, while the conduction band shows minor changes due to spin orbit coupling. Moreover, the role of incident light angle and light polarization were studied in details at different valleys of K and {K}^{^{prime}}. The most important finding is that by changing the polarization of incident light, it is possible to increase the absorption coefficients of K and {K}^{^{prime}} valleys by up to 30 times. For light propagation direction close to perpendicular to the plane of the superlattice, the right-circular polarization is absorbed only by K valley in contrast to the left-circular polarization, which is absorbed by the {K}^{^{prime}} valley. Our model might be used to design newly developed 2D optovalleytronic devices.

High-Quality Infrared Metalenses Based on Germanium Dimers

Modern methods of nanophotonics allow creating miniature devices that change the direction of light propagation, modulate the phase front, and control the outcoming state of the polarization. One of the promising areas of research is the development of flat optics elements based on planar analogues of metamaterials—dielectric metasurfaces, which are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength nanoparticles with a high refractive index and low absorption coefficient. However, the resonances of such nanoscatterers have usually a low quality factor. Symmetry breaking of particle can lead to the excitation of a high-Q quasi-bound states in the continuum. In this work, we numerically study infrared metasurfaces that support such resonances and are formed by dimers of germanium nanocuboids. The possibility of focusing radiation to a point and line by 300‑nm-thick spherical and cylindrical metalenses is shown.

Optical anisotropy of transparent polymer materials fabricated via 3D printing and their application in photoelasticity

Additive manufacturing has been used to fabricate photoelastic models for several years. In the 3D-printing techniques that use photosensitive resins, models are built layer by layer, and the influence of these layers on light propagation and photoelastic fringes is still ambiguous. In this study, a plane polarization arrangement is used to examine the influence of thin layers on light propagation using three disks printed along different directions. The influence of the layers on the light intensity is negligible for the disk where the layer planes are perpendicular to the direction of light propagation. Identical light polarization is observed for the disks where the layer planes are parallel to the direction of light propagation. This is consistent with a polarizer. The evaluation of the thin layers using scanning electron microscopy indicated that the influence of the microstructures on light propagation is the potential cause of these phenomena. The influence of light polarization on photoelastic fringes was presented by comparing the fringes of different disks under circularly polarized light. The results can improve the application of the 3D-printed models in photoelasticity and the understanding of the optical anisotropy of 3D-printed polymer.

Nonreciprocity of Optical Absorption in the Magnetoelectric Antiferromagnet CuB2O4

The change in the absorption spectra due to reversal of the direction of light propagation (nonreciprocity of absorption) is a consequence of a simultaneous violation of both time-reversal and spatial-inversion symmetries. Here, we report on a high-resolution spectroscopic study of absorption nonreciprocity in the noncentrosymmetric multiferroic CuB2O4 below the antiferromagnetic transition temperature TN = 21 K in the commensurate phase in magnetic fields up to 0.5 T. The study was performed in a broad spectral region covering several exciton transitions, which all are followed by an anomalously rich structure due to the multiple exciton-magnon-phonon satellites. Two components were resolved for the spectral line near 1.4 eV corresponding to the exciton transition between the ground and the first excited state. A quantitative theory of the optical absorption and nonreciprocity at this line was developed. The theory takes into account the interference between the electric and magnetic dipole contributions to the absorption and gives an adequate explanation of the relevant effects.

Velocity of light through a moving medium applied to the Fizeau experiment

Light travels in a moving medium through densities that differ from the density of that medium at rest. This study derives a formula for the velocity of light through a moving medium for any direction of light propagation that, applied to the Fizeau experiment, gives a fringe shift of 0.23541. The Fresnel drag coefficient applied to the Fizeau experiment offers a fringe shift of 0.20466. The mean of 0.23016 for the fringe shift observations in the Fizeau experiment confirms both expectations.

Morphology-dependent resonance induced optical forces in a multiple-sphere system.

Optical fields and forces can be greatly enhanced for a microparticle when the whispering gallery modes (WGMs) are excited. In this paper, by solving the scattering problem using the generalized Mie theory, the morphology-dependent resonances (MDRs) and resonant optical forces derived from the coherent coupling of WGMs are investigated in multiple-sphere systems. When the spheres approach each other, the bonding and antibonding modes of MDRs emerge and correspond to the attractive and repulsive forces, respectively. More importantly, the antibonding mode is good at propagating light forward, while the optical fields decay rapidly for the bonding mode. Moreover, the bonding and antibonding modes of MDRs in the PT-symmetric system can persist only when the imaginary part of the refractive index is small enough. Interestingly, it is also shown that for a PT-symmetric structure, only a minor imaginary part of the refractive index is required to generate a significant pulling force at MDRs, making the whole structure move against the light propagation direction. Our work deepens the understanding of the collective resonance behavior of multiple spheres and paves the way for potential applications in particle transportation, non-Hermitian systems, integrated optical devices, etc.