Paper No S1.4: “Continuous” Nanoscale Patterned Photoalignment for Thin Film Pancharatnam-Berry Phase Diffractive Lens

Voltage-controlled liquid crystal Pancharatnam-Berry phase lens with broadband operation and high photo-stability

Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements (PBOEs) have received much attention due to their ability to generate complex structured light or to manipulate the shape of a light beam. This work demonstrates a tunable liquid crystal (LC) Pancharatnam-Berry (LCPB) lens using a simple and cost-effective PB phase hologram optical setup and thermal polymerization to form an irreversible photo-patterning alignment layer. The LCPB lens with high photo-stability supports ultra-broadband operation and provides a diffraction efficiency of ∼90% throughout the visible spectral range, achieved by applying the appropriate voltages. The LCPB lens functions as a convex or a concave lens, depending on the handedness of the circularly polarized incident light, so its image reduction and magnification functions are demonstrated, and its photo-stability is characterized. The fabrication of the proposed LC PBOEs is simpler and more cost-effective than previous methods, and the irreversible photo-patterning alignment layer that is formed by thermal polymerization allows larger operational bandwidths, supporting new applications.

Quadrature Squeezing and Geometric-Phase Oscillations in Nano-Optics

The geometric phase, as well as the familiar dynamical phase, occurs in the evolution of a squeezed state in nano-optics as an extra phase. The outcome of the geometric phase in that state is somewhat intricate: its time behavior exhibits a combination of a linear increase and periodic oscillations. We focus in this work on the periodic oscillations of the geometric phase, which are novel and interesting. We confirm that such oscillations are due purely to the effects of squeezing in the quantum states, whereas the oscillation disappears when we remove the squeezing. As the degree of squeezing increases in q-quadrature, the amplitude of the geometric-phase oscillation becomes large. This implies that we can adjust the strength of such an oscillation by tuning the squeezing parameters. We also investigate geometric-phase oscillations for the case of a more general optical phenomenon where the squeezed state undergoes one-photon processes. It is shown that the geometric phase in this case exhibits additional intricate oscillations with small amplitudes, besides the principal oscillation. Such a sub-oscillation exhibits a beating-like behavior in time. The effects of geometric-phase oscillations are crucial in a wide range of wave interferences which are accompanied by rich physical phenomena such as Aharonov–Bohm oscillations, conductance fluctuations, antilocalizations, and nondissipative current flows.

Berry Phase of Light under Bragg Reflection by Chiral Liquid-Crystal Media

A Berry phase is revealed for circularly polarized light when it is Bragg reflected by a chiral liquid-crystal medium of the same handedness. By using a chiral nematic layer we demonstrate that if the input plane of the layer is rotated with respect to a fixed reference frame, a geometric phase effect occurs for the circularly polarized light reflected by the periodic helical structure of the medium. Theory and numerical simulations are supported by an experimental observation, disclosing novel applications in the field of optical manipulation and fundamental optical phenomena.