Circular dichroism of cholesteric polymers and the orbital angular momentum of light

W. Löffler, D. J. Broer, and J. P. Woerdman

Phys. Rev. A 83, 065801 – Published 6 June 2011

Abstract

We explore experimentally if light’s orbital angular momentum (OAM) interacts with chiral nematic polymer films. Specifically, we measure the circular dichroism of such a material using light beams with different OAM. We investigate the case of strongly focused, nonparaxial light beams, where the spatial and polarization degrees of freedom are coupled. Within the experimental accuracy, we cannot find any influence of the OAM on the circular dichroism of cholesteric polymers.

Received 5 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.065801

Authors & Affiliations

W. Löffler^1,*, D. J. Broer², and J. P. Woerdman¹

¹Huygens Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9504, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
²Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Functional Organic Materials and Devices, P.O. Box 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands

^*loeffler@physics.leidenuniv.nl

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Vol. 83, Iss. 6 — June 2011

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