Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Optical vortex induction via light–matter interaction in liquid-crystal media

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

Optical vortices are attracting much attention because of their applications in various fields of optical processing, communications, enhanced imaging systems, and bio-inspired devices. Different methods to generate optical vortices have been devised to date. Among them, several are based on the exploitation of light–matter interaction in liquid-crystal media. This review focuses on the main mechanisms of vortex generation in liquid crystals, in particular on vortex generation induced by umbilics, that is, defects arising in homeotropically aligned nematic cells, which act as topological matter templates able to realize the conversion from spin to orbital angular momentum of an incoming Gaussian beam. Optical vortex induction in a photosensitive light valve is presented as a self-stabilizing mechanism leading to reconfigurable and programmable vortex arrays. On each lattice site, every matter vortex acts as a photonic spin-to-orbital momentum coupler, converting input arrays of circularly polarized beams into output arrays of vortex beams with topological charges consistent with the matter lattice symmetry.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Advances in light transverse momenta and optical lateral forces

Yuzhi Shi, Xiaohao Xu, Manuel Nieto-Vesperinas, Qinghua Song, Ai Qun Liu, Gabriella Cipparrone, Zengping Su, Baoli Yao, Zhanshan Wang, Cheng-Wei Qiu, and Xinbin Cheng
Adv. Opt. Photon. 15(3) 835-906 (2023)

Optical communications using orbital angular momentum beams

A. E. Willner, H. Huang, Y. Yan, Y. Ren, N. Ahmed, G. Xie, C. Bao, L. Li, Y. Cao, Z. Zhao, J. Wang, M. P. J. Lavery, M. Tur, S. Ramachandran, A. F. Molisch, N. Ashrafi, and S. Ashrafi
Adv. Opt. Photon. 7(1) 66-106 (2015)

Nonlinear light–matter interaction at terahertz frequencies

Daniele Nicoletti and Andrea Cavalleri
Adv. Opt. Photon. 8(3) 401-464 (2016)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (31)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (42)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved