Abstract
It is shown that, at an incoherent superposition of orthogonally polarized laser beams, a special type of singularities are formed in the cross section of a combined beam in place of the well-known singularities, such as optical vortices (for scalar fields); C points, at which the polarization is circular; and L lines, along which the polarization is linear (for coherent vector fields). These new singularities are U lines, along which the degree of polarization is zero and the state of polarization is undetermined, and P points, at which the degree of polarization is equal to unity and the state of polarization is determined by the nonzero component of the combined beam. Conditions of topological stability of U and P singularities are discussed, as well as peculiarities of the spatial distribution of the degree of polarization of the field in the vicinity of such singularities. First experimental results on the reconstruction of a vector skeleton formed by U and P singularities in combined speckle fields are presented.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. V. Berry and M. R. Dennis, J. Opt. A 6, 178 (2004).
S. A. Ponomarenko, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 18, 150 (2001).
G. V. Bogatyryova, Ch. V. Felde, P. V. Polyanskii, S. A. Ponomarenko, M. S. Soskin, and E. Wolf, Opt. Lett. 28, 878 (2003).
G. Gbur and T. Visser, Opt. Commun. 222, 117 (2003).
D. M. Palacios, I. D. Maleev, A. S. Marathay, and G. A. Swartzlander, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 143905 (2004).
I. Freund, Opt. Commun. 226, 351 (2003).
M. V. Berry, M. R. Dennis, and R. L. Lee, New J. Phys. 6(162), 1 (2004).
J. F. Nye and J. V. Hajnal, Proc. Roy. Soc. (Lond.) A 409, 21 (1987).
J. F. Nye, Natural Focusing and Fine Structure of Light (Inst. Phys. Publ., Bristol, 1999).
M. V. Berry and M. R. Dennis, Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A 457, 141 (2001).
I. Freund, Opt. Commun. 201, 251 (2002).
M. S. Soskin, V. G. Denisenko, and R. I. Egorov, J. Opt. A 6, 281 (2004).
I. Freund, M. S. Soskin, and A. I. Mokhun, Opt. Commun. 208, 223 (2002).
K. V. Fel’de, A. A. Chernyshov, G. V. Bogatyreva, P. V. Polyanskii, and M. S. Soskin, Pis’ma Zh. Éksp. Teor. Fiz. 88(7), 490 (2008).
M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 7th ed (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1997).
R. M. Azzam and N. M. Bashara, Ellipsometry and Polarized Light (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977; Mir, Moscow, 1981).
W. A. Shurcliff, Polarized Light: Production and Use (Harvard Univ. Press, Harvard, 1962).
J. R. Klauder and E. C. G. Sudarshan, Fundamentals of Quantum Optics (Benjamin, New York, 1968; Mir, Moscow, 1970).
M. S. Soskin and M. V. Vasnetsov, in Progress in Optics, Ed. by E. Wolf (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 2001), Vol. 42.
N. B. Baranova, A. V. Mamaev, H. F. Pilipetskii, et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73, 525 (1983).
I. Freund, Opt. Lett. 26, 1996 (2001).
V. G. Denisenko, A. Minovich, A. S. Desyatnikov, W. Krolikowski, M. S. Soskin, and Yu. S. Kivshar, Opt. Lett. 33, 89 (2008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © A.A. Chernyshov, K.V. Fel’de, G.V. Bogatyreva, P.V. Polyanskii, M.S. Soskin, 2009, published in Optika i Spektroskopiya, 2009, Vol. 107, No. 4, pp. 680–686.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chernyshov, A.A., Fel’de, K.V., Bogatyreva, G.V. et al. Vector singularities of superposition of mutually incoherent orthogonally polarized beams. Opt. Spectrosc. 107, 645–650 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0030400X09100191
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0030400X09100191