Nathaniel Hermosa

How orbital angular momentum affects beam shifts in optical reflection

It is well known that reflection of a Gaussian light beam (TEM{sub 00}) by a planar dielectric interface leads to four beam shifts when compared to the geometrical-optics prediction. These are the spatial Goos-Haenchen (GH) shift, the angular GH shift, the spatial Imbert-Fedorov (IF) shift, and the angular IF shift. We report here, theoretically and experimentally, that endowing the beam with orbital angular momentum leads to coupling of these four shifts; this is described by a 4x4 mixing matrix.

Spin Hall effect of light in metallic reflection.

We report the first measurement of the spin Hall effect of light (SHEL) on an air-metal interface. The SHEL is a polarization-dependent out-of-plane shift on the reflected beam. For the case of metallic reflection with a linearly polarized incident light, both the spatial and angular variants of the shift are observed and are maximum for -45°/45° polarization, but zero for pure s and p polarization. For an incoming beam with circular polarization states however, only the spatial out-of-plane shift is present.

Experimental detection of transverse particle movement with structured light

One procedure widely used to detect the velocity of a moving object is by using the Doppler effect. This is the perceived change in frequency of a wave caused by the relative motion between the emitter and the detector, or between the detector and a reflecting target. The relative movement, in turn, generates a time-varying phase which translates into the detected frequency shift. The classical longitudinal Doppler effect is sensitive only to the velocity of the target along the line-of-sight between the emitter and the detector (longitudinal velocity), since any transverse velocity generates no frequency shift. This makes the transverse velocity undetectable in the classical scheme. Although there exists a relativistic transverse Doppler effect, it gives values that are too small for the typical velocities involved in most laser remote sensing applications. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel way to detect transverse velocities. The key concept is the use of structured light beams. These beams are unique in the sense that their phases can be engineered such that each point in its transverse plane has an associated phase value. When a particle moves across the beam, the reflected light will carry information about the particles movement through the variation of the phase of the light that reaches the detector, producing a frequency shift associated with the movement of the particle in the transverse plane.

Demonstration of a quasi-scalar angular Goos-Hänchen effect

We show experimentally that the angular Goos-Hänchen (GH) effect can be easily observed, also without employing its resonant enhancement at Brewster incidence. An s-polarized beam was used to decouple the polarization from the propagation dynamics of the beam. We found that, in this case, the angular GH effect can be strongly enhanced by increasing the angular aperture of the Gaussian beam. Our experiments suggest a route toward observing the angular GH effect for true scalar waves, such as acoustic waves and quantum matter waves.

Weak measurements with orbital-angular-momentum pointer states.

Weak measurements are a unique tool for accessing information about weakly interacting quantum systems with minimal back action. Joint weak measurements of single-particle operators with pointer states characterized by a two-dimensional Gaussian distribution can provide, in turn, key information about quantum correlations that can be relevant for quantum information applications. Here we demonstrate that by employing two-dimensional pointer states endowed with orbital angular momentum (OAM), it is possible to extract weak values of the higher order moments of single-particle operators, an inaccessible quantity with Gaussian pointer states only. We provide a specific example that illustrates the advantages of our method both in terms of signal enhancement and information retrieval.

Quadrant detector calibration for vortex beams

This Letter reports an experimental and theoretical study of the response of a quadrant detector (QD) to an incident vortex beam, specifically a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam. We have found that the LG beam response depends on the vorticity index ℓ. We compare LG beams with hard-ringed beams and find that at higher ℓ values, the QD response to LG beams can be approximated by its response to hard-ringed beams. Our findings are important in view of the increasing interest in optical vortex beams.

Measuring the translational and rotational velocities of particles in helical motion using structured light

We measure the rotational and translational velocity components of particles moving in helical motion under a Laguerre-Gaussian mode illumination. The moving particle reflects light that acquires an additional frequency shift proportional to the velocity of rotation in the transverse plane, on top of the usual frequency shift due to the longitudinal motion. We determined both the translational and rotational velocities of the particles by switching between two modes: by illuminating with a Gaussian beam, we can isolate the longitudinal frequency shift; and by using a Laguerre-Gaussian mode, the frequency shift due to the rotation can be determined. Our technique can be used to characterize the motility of microorganisms with a full three-dimensional movement.

Helico-conical optical beams self-heal

An optical beam is said to be self-healing when, distorted by an obstacle, the beam corrects itself upon propagation. In this Letter we show, through experiments supported by numerical simulations, that Helico-conical optical beams self-heal. We observe the strong resilience of these beams with different types of obstructions, and relate this to the characteristics of their transverse energy flow.

Radial mode dependence of optical beam shifts

It is known that orbital angular momentum (OAM) couples the Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov shifts. Here, we present the first study of these shifts when the OAM-endowed LG(ℓ,p) beams have higher-order radial mode index (p>0). We show theoretically and experimentally that the angular shifts are enhanced by p while the positional shifts are not.

Nanostep height measurement via spatial mode projection

We demonstrate an optical scheme for measuring the thickness of thin nanolayers with the use of light beams spatial modes. The novelty in our scheme is the projection of the beam reflected by the sample onto a properly tailored spatial mode. In the experiment described below, we are able to measure a step height smaller than 10 nm, i.e., one-eightieth (1/80) of the wavelength with a standard error in the picometer scale. Since our scheme enhances the signal-to-noise ratio, which effectively increases the sensitivity of detection, the extension of this technique to the detection of subnanometric layer thicknesses is feasible.