Abstract

A wavefront sensor is used as a direct observation tool to image the Gouy phase shift in photonic nanojets created by micrometer-sized dielectric spheres. The amplitude and phase distributions of light are found in good agreement with a rigorous electromagnetic computation. Interestingly the observed phase shift when travelling through the photonic jet is a combination of the awaited $\pi$ Gouy shift and a phase shift induced by the bead refraction. Such direct spatial phase shift observation using wavefront sensors would find applications in microscopy, diffractive optics, optical trapping, and point spread function engineering.

© 2012 Optical Society of America

Phase imaging using shifted wavefront sensor images

Zhengyun Zhang, Zhi Chen, Shakil Rehman, and George Barbastathis
Opt. Lett. 39(21) 6177-6180 (2014)

Physical origin of the Gouy phase shift

Simin Feng and Herbert G. Winful
Opt. Lett. 26(8) 485-487 (2001)

Generalized eikonal treatment of the Gouy phase shift

Jun Yang and Herbert G. Winful
Opt. Lett. 31(1) 104-106 (2006)

Gouy phase for full-aperture spherical and cylindrical waves

Tomáš Tyc
Opt. Lett. 37(5) 924-926 (2012)

Longitudinal-differential interferometry: direct imaging of axial superluminal phase propagation

Myun-Sik Kim, Toralf Scharf, Christoph Etrich, Carsten Rockstuhl, and Hans Herzig Peter
Opt. Lett. 37(3) 305-307 (2012)