Phys.org November 29, 2024 An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, Greece) investigated the effect of a mirror-symmetry plane in multiple-scattering media under plane-wave illumination along the symmetry plane. Designed and fabricated samples’ optical transport properties were compared quantitatively with three-dimensional modeling. Strong polarization-dependent deviations of the bulk speckle-averaged intensity distribution at the symmetry plane showed either up to a factor 2 enhancement or complete suppression of the ensemble-averaged intensities. According to the researchers their work could have application in counterfeiting… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Tag Archives: Light polarization
High-speed electron camera uncovers new ‘light-twisting’ behavior in ultrathin material
Phys.org July 10, 2024 Manipulating the polarization of light at the nanoscale is key to the development of next-generation optoelectronic devices. This is typically done via waveplates using optically anisotropic crystals, with thicknesses on the order of the wavelength. A team of researchers in the US (Stanford, SLAC Nation Acceleration Laboratory, Harvard University, Columbia University, Florida State University, UCLA) used a novel ultrafast electron-beam-based technique sensitive to transient near fields at THz frequencies to observe a giant anisotropy in the linear optical response in Tungsten ditelluride (WTe2). They demonstrated that it is possible to tune THz polarization using a 50 […]
The perfect trap: a new way to control the polarization of light
Phys.org January 19, 2022 An international team of researchers (Germany, UK, Scotland, Switzerland) has demonstrated that the Kerr effect in a high-finesse Fabry-Pérot resonator can be utilized to control the polarization of a continuous wave laser. They showed that a linearly polarized input field is converted into a left- or right-circularly-polarized field, controlled via the optical power. The observations are explained by Kerr-nonlinearity induced symmetry breaking, which splits the resonance frequencies of degenerate modes with opposite polarization handedness in an otherwise symmetric resonator. According to the researchers in the future one could arrange many of these devices onto a photonic […]
A trillion turns of light nets terahertz polarized bytes
Phys.org October 19, 2020 Ultrafast nanophotonics is an emerging research field aimed at the development of nanodevices capable of light modulation with unprecedented speed. An international team of researchers (Italy, USA – Rice University) demonstrated that the inhomogeneous spacetime distribution of photogenerated hot carriers induces a transient symmetry breaking in a highly symmetric plasmonic metasurface. The process is fully reversible and results in a broadband transient dichroism with a recovery of the initial isotropic state in less than 1 ps, overcoming the speed bottleneck caused by slower (electron–phonon and phonon–phonon) relaxation processes. Their results pave the way to ultrafast dichroic devices […]