Physics Commons^™

Polarization Properties Of Airy And Ince-Gaussian Laser Beams, Sean Michael Nomoto

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The description of polarization states of laser light as linear, circular polarization within the paraxial scalar wave approximation is adequate for most applications. However, this description falls short when considering laser light as an electromagnetic wave satisfying Maxwell's equations. An electric field with a constant unit vector for direction of the field and a space dependent complex scalar amplitude in the paraxial wave approximation does not satisfy Maxwell equations which, in general, requires all three Cartesian components of electric and magnetic fields associated for a nonzero laser beam to be nonzero.

Physical observation of passing a linearly polarized laser through …

Designer Metasurfaces For On Demand Optical Responses, Matthew S. Lepain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nanostructured materials are one of the leading areas in photonics currently. These structures offer almost limitless possibilities in the manipulation of light. Using two different semi-analytical simulation methods, I show a few of the possible properties that these nanostructures possess, including polarization rotation and coupling with electronics.

Modification Of The Fundamental Properties Of Light Through Interaction With Nanostructured Materials, David W. Keene Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field of photonics has been growing rapidly over the last few decades as it has endeavored to harness the potential of nanostructured materials to utilize the energy and momentum of electromagnetic radiation on the nanoscale. Using metal nanostructures provides the ability to take advantage of the sub-field of plasmonics which holds the promise of opening the world to vast increases in computational power by circumventing the limitations of conventional current that plague today’s processors. With a thorough understanding of this subject we also get one step closer to increasing the efficiency of solar technology, developing a finer scale of …

Beyond Conventional C-Plane Gan-Based Light Emitting Diodes: A Systematic Exploration Of Leds On Semi-Polar Orientations, Morteza Monavarian

Theses and Dissertations

Despite enormous efforts and investments, the efficiency of InGaN-based green and yellow-green light emitters remains relatively low, and that limits progress in developing full color display, laser diodes, and bright light sources for general lighting. The low efficiency of light emitting devices in the green-to-yellow spectral range, also known as the “Green Gap”, is considered a global concern in the LED industry. The polar c-plane orientation of GaN, which is the mainstay in the LED industry, suffers from polarization-induced separation of electrons and hole wavefunctions (also known as the “quantum confined Stark effect”) and low indium incorporation efficiency that …

Constructing The Quantum Steering Ellipsoid Using State Measurement Of Biphotons, Carter Vanderbilt

Senior Projects Spring 2015

This paper investigates a recently discovered geometric representation of two-qubit states, the Quantum Steering Ellipsoid, by exploring quantum state measurements on mixtures of polarization-entangled photons produced using spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). Measurements of the second photon of a mixed biphoton system that are conditioned on observations of the first photon demonstrate all possible Bloch Vectors that the second photon can be collapsed to by way of ''steering,'' which is only possible due to the nonlocal nature of entangled systems. This paper examines methods to experimentally verify the Quantum Steering Ellipsoid as a geometric classification of quantum states.

Inverse Problems In Multiple Light Scattering, John Broky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The interaction between coherent waves and material systems with complex optical properties is a complicated, deterministic process. Light that scatters from such media gives rise to random fields with intricate properties. It is common perception that the randomness of these complex fields is undesired and therefore is to be removed, usually through a process of ensemble averaging. However, random fields emerging from light matter interaction contain information about the properties of the medium and a thorough analysis of the scattered light allows solving specific inverse problems. Traditional attempts to solve these kinds of inverse problems tend to rely on statistical …

Magneto-Photonic Crystals For Optical Sensing Applications, Neluka Dissanayake

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Among the optical structures investigated for optical sensing purpose, a significant amount of research has been conducted on photonic crystal based sensors. A particular advantage of photonic crystal based sensors is that they show superior sensitivity for ultra-small volume sensing. In this study we investigate polarization changes in response to the changes in the cover index of magneto-optic active photonic band gap structures. One-dimensional photonic-band gap structures fabricated on iron garnet materials yield large polarization rotations at the band gap edges. The enhanced polarization effects serve as an excellent tool for chemical sensing showing high degree of sensitivity for photonic …

Polarization Properties Of Maxwell-Gauss Laser Beams, Jessica Patricia Conry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Laser beams are wave-like optical disturbances. They are characterized by a dominant direction of propagation and a finite extent transverse to the direction of propagation. Many characteristics of laser beams can be described in terms of a scalar function multiplied by a constant vector, which can be real (for linear polarization) or complex (for elliptical polarization). The scalar function is a solution to the paraxial scalar wave equation. This scalar description, however, fails to describe the polarization and focusing characteristics of laser beams correctly. For a correct accounting of these characteristics, the electric and magnetic fields associated with laser beams …

Near-Field Optical Interactions And Applications, David Haefner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The propagation symmetry of electromagnetic fields is affected by encounters with material systems. The effects of such interactions, for example, modifications of intensity, phase, polarization, angular spectrum, frequency, etc. can be used to obtain information about the material system. However, the propagation of electromagnetic waves imposes a fundamental limit to the length scales over which the material properties can be observed. In the realm of near-field optics, this limitation is overcome only through a secondary interaction that couples the high-spatial-frequency (but non-propagating) field components to propagating waves that can be detected. The available information depends intrinsically on this secondary interaction, …

Effects Of Polarization And Coherence On The Propagation And The Detection Of Stochastic Electromagnetic Beams, Mohamed Fouad Salem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Most of the physically realizable optical sources are radiating in a random manner given the random nature of the radiation of a large number of atoms that constitute the source. Besides, a lot of natural and synthetic materials are fluctuating randomly. Hence, the optical fields that one encounters, in most of the applications are fluctuating and must be treated using random or stochastic functions. Within the framework of the scalar-coherence theory, one can describe changes of the properties of any stochastic field such as the spectral density and the spectral degree of coherence on propagation in any linear medium, deterministic …

Probing Random Media With Singular Waves, Chaim Schwartz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years a resurgence of interest in wave singularities (of which optical vortices are a prominent example), light angular momentum and the relations between them has occurred. Many applications in various areas of linear and non-linear optics have been based on studying effects related to angular momentum and optical vortices. This dissertation examines the use of such wave singularities for studying the light propagation in highly inhomogeneous media and the relationship to angular momentum transfer. Angular momentum carried by light can be, in many cases, divided in two terms. The first one relates to the polarization of light and …