Polarization Detection Using Light's Orbital Angular Momentum

Aning Ma, Yuttana Intaravanne, Jin Han, Ruoxing Wang, Xianzhong Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)
72 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Polarization detection has been used for a wide variety of applications. A twisted light beam with a helical phase structure carries an orbital angular momentum. The rapid development of optical metasurfaces has enabled practical generation and manipulation of twisted light beams at subwavelength resolution. Herein, a facile metasurface approach is experimentally demonstrated to directly detect the polarization state of light based on the superposition of twisted light beams. The major axis and ellipticity of the polarized light are measured by the interference pattern of two twisted light beams with same topological charges and opposite signs, while the handedness is determined by using topological charges with different values. The subwavelength resolution, ultrathin nature, and compactness render this technology very attractive for diverse applications including optical communications, optical tweezers, and quantum sciences.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2000484
JournalAdvanced Optical Materials
Volume8
Issue number18
Early online date15 Jun 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Sept 2020

Keywords

  • optical metasurfaces
  • polarization detection
  • superposition of vortex beams
  • vortex beams

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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