Qiwen Zhan

Cylindrical vector beams: from mathematical concepts to applications

An overview of the recent developments in the field of cylindrical vector beams is provided. As one class of spatially variant polarization, cylindrical vector beams are the axially symmetric beam solution to the full vector electromagnetic wave equation. These beams can be generated via different active and passive methods. Techniques for manipulating these beams while maintaining the polarization symmetry have also been developed. Their special polarization symmetry gives rise to unique high-numerical-aperture focusing properties that find important applications in nanoscale optical imaging and manipulation. The prospects for cylindrical vector beams and their applications in other fields are also briefly discussed.

Trapping metallic Rayleigh particles with radial polarization.

Metallic particles are generally considered difficult to trap due to strong scattering and absorption forces. In this paper, numerical studies show that optical tweezers using radial polarization can stably trap metallic particles in 3-dimension. The extremely strong axial component of a highly focused radially polarized beam provides a large gradient force. Meanwhile, this strong axial field component does not contribute to the Poynting vector along the optical axis. Consequently, it does not create axial scattering/absorption forces. Owing to the spatial separation of the gradient force and scattering/absorption forces, a stable 3-D optical trap for metallic particles can be formed.

Focus shaping using cylindrical vector beams

We report a focus shaping technique using generalized cylindrical vector beams. A generalized cylindrical vector beam can be decomposed into radially polarized and azimuthally polarized components. Such a generalized cylindrical beam can be generated from a radially polarized or an azimuthally polarized light using a two-half-wave-plate polarization rotator. The intensity pattern at the focus can be tailored by appropriately adjusting the rotation angle. Peak-centered, donut and flattop focal shapes can be obtained using this technique.

Evanescent Bessel beam generation via surface plasmon resonance excitation by a radially polarized beam

A simple setup for generating evanescent Bessel beams is proposed. When a radially polarized beam is strongly focused onto a dielectric-metal interface, the entire beam is p-polarized with respect to the dielectric-metal interface, enabling excitation of surface plasmons from all directions. The angular selectivity of surface plasmon excitation mimics the function of an axicon, leading to an evanescent nondiffracting Bessel beam. The created evanescent Bessel beam may be used as a virtual probe for near-field optical imaging and sensing applications.

Miniature circular polarization analyzer with spiral plasmonic lens

A simple spiral plasmonic lens is studied both analytically and numerically. Owing to the geometric phase effect, a spiral plasmonic lens focuses the left-hand and right-hand circular polarizations into spatially separated plasmonic fields. Such a spatial multiplexing of the field distribution is utilized in miniature circular polarization analyzer design. A circular polarization extinction ratio better than 100 is obtainable with a device size as small as 4lambda(spp). The spiral plasmonic lens provides efficient plasmonic focusing while it eliminates the requirement of centering the incident beam to the plasmonic lens, making it suitable for full Stokes parameter polarimetric imaging applications.

Properties of circularly polarized vortex beams

The properties of circularly polarized vortex beams in cylindrical polarization bases are studied. A circularly polarized vortex beam is decomposed into radial and azimuthal polarization. With the proper combination of vortex charge and the handedness of the circular polarization, a focal field with an extremely strong longitudinal component as well as a flat-topped profile can be obtained. The cylindrical decomposition also sheds light on the connections between orbital angular momentum and the spin of the light beams.

Propagation of vector vortex beams through a turbulent atmosphere

We numerically study the propagation properties of vector vortex beams through a turbulent atmosphere. The irradiance pattern, degree of polarization, and scintillation index of radially polarized beam are computed for different propagation distances in an atmosphere with weak and strong turbulences. Corresponding properties of a fundamental Gaussian beam and a scalar vortex beam with topological charge of + 1 propagating through the same atmospheric turbulence conditions are calculated for comparison. With the same initial intensity profile, the vector vortex beam shows substantially lower scintillation than the scalar vortex. The existence of the vectorial vortex can be identified with longer propagation distance than the scalar vortex even with vanishing characteristic vortex structure in the irradiance images. This indicates the potential advantages of using a vector vortex beam to mitigate atmospheric effects and enable a more robust free space communication channel with longer link distance.

Realization of an evanescent Bessel beam via surface plasmon interference excited by a radially polarized beam.

We report the experimental confirmation of the evanescent Bessel beam generation via surface plamson resonance excitation with a radially polarized beam. The interference of surface plasmon waves excited by a radially polarized beam creates an evanescent Bessel beam with enhanced localized field and spot size beyond the diffraction limit. The excitation of the surface plasmon is confirmed by the observation of a narrow dark ring at the back focal plane. Two-dimensional intensity distributions at different distances from the sample surface are mapped by a collection-mode near-field scanning optical microscope to verify the nondiffracting and decaying natures of the evanescent Bessel beam.

PLASMONIC EIT-LIKE SWITCHING IN BRIGHT-DARK-BRIGHT PLASMON RESONATORS

In this paper we report the study of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like transmission in the bright-dark-bright plasmon resonators. It is demonstrated that the interferences between the dark plasmons excited by two bright plasmon resonators can be controlled by the incident light polarization. The constructive interference strengthens the coupling between the bright and dark resonators, leading to a more prominent EIT-like transparency window of the metamaterial. In contrary, destructive interference suppresses the coupling between the bright and dark resonators, destroying the interference pathway that forms the EIT-like transmission. Based on this observation, the plasmonic EIT switching can be realized by changing the polarization of incident light. This phenomenon may find applications in optical switching and plasmon-based information processing.

Creation of a three-dimensional optical chain for controllable particle delivery

We propose a design for producing a conveyable quasi-periodic optical chain that can stably trap and deliver multiple individual particles in three dimensions at different planes near the focus. A diffractive optical element (DOE) is designed to spatially modulate the phase of an incoming radially polarized beam. For a tighly focused beam, a three-dimensional (3D) optical chain can be formed because of the difference in the Gouy phase shift from two concentric regions of the DOE. A desired number of particles can be stably tweezed one by one with individual 3D volumes in this trapping structure. By controlling the phase modulation of the incident beam, one can manipulate the interference pattern to accelerate and transport trapped particles along the optical axis in a prescribed way.