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

Symmetry breaking of optical vortices: birth and annihilation of singularities in the evanescent field

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

The interaction of optical vortices (or phase singularities, or screw dislocations) with ordinary matter is treated with a simple approach. Using the total internal reflection phenomenon and the superposition of four plane waves incident on a material with a refractive index lower than the original propagating medium, we are able to show the birth and annihilation of optical vortices in an evanescent field with curved topological features. Until now, this phenomenon has been explored only in free space propagation. By a suitable tuning process involving the incident angles and the amplitudes of the incident plane waves, it is possible to create unusual topological features of optical vortices in the vicinity of the material. We believe that this work can open new aspects of curved optical vortex manipulation in near-field optics.

© 2011 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
The creation and annihilation of optical vortices using cascade conical diffraction

D. P. O’Dwyer, C. F. Phelan, Y. P. Rakovich, P. R. Eastham, J. G. Lunney, and J. F. Donegan
Opt. Express 19(3) 2580-2588 (2011)

Appearance of singularities of optical fields under torsion of crystals containing threefold symmetry axes

Ihor Skab, Yurij Vasylkiv, Bohdan Zapeka, Viktoriya Savaryn, and Rostyslav Vlokh
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 28(7) 1331-1340 (2011)

How to distinguish between the annihilation and the creation of optical vortices

Filippus S. Roux
Opt. Lett. 38(19) 3895-3898 (2013)

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 (3)

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 (1)

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