Picture map of Europe with pins indicating European capital cities

Open Access research with a European policy impact...

The Strathprints institutional repository is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde's Open Access research outputs. Strathprints provides access to thousands of Open Access research papers by Strathclyde researchers, including by researchers from the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC).

EPRC is a leading institute in Europe for comparative research on public policy, with a particular focus on regional development policies. Spanning 30 European countries, EPRC research programmes have a strong emphasis on applied research and knowledge exchange, including the provision of policy advice to EU institutions and national and sub-national government authorities throughout Europe.

Explore research outputs by the European Policies Research Centre...

Strathprints

Polarization shaping for control of nonlinear propagation

Bouchard, Frederic and Larocque, Hugo and Yao, Alison M. and Travis, Christopher and De Leon, Israel and Rubano, Andrea and Karimi, Ebrahim and Oppo, Gian-Luca and Boyd, Robert W. (2016) Polarization shaping for control of nonlinear propagation. Physical Review Letters, 117 (23). ISSN 0031-9007

[img]
Preview
 Text (Bouchard-etal-PRL-2016-Polarization-shaping-for-control-of-nonlinear-propagation)
Bouchard_etal_PRL_2016_Polarization_shaping_for_control_of_nonlinear_propagation.pdf - Accepted Author Manuscript
Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

We study the nonlinear optical propagation of two different classes of{light beams with space varying polarization -- radially symmetric vector beams and Poincar\'e beams with lemon and star topologies -- in a rubidium vapour cell. Unlike Laguerre-Gauss and other types of beams that quickly experience instabilities, we observe that their propagation is not marked by beam breakup while still exhibiting traits such as nonlinear confinement and self-focusing. Our results suggest that by tailoring the spatial structure of the polarization, the effects of nonlinear propagation can be effectively controlled. These findings provide a novel approach to transport high-power light beams in nonlinear media with controllable distortions to their spatial structure and polarization properties.

Item type: Article
ID code: 58750
Keywords: polarization, nonlinear propagation, high-power light beam, light beams, Optics. Light, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Subjects: Science > Physics > Optics. Light
Department: Faculty of Science > Physics
Depositing user: Pure Administrator
Date deposited: 21 Nov 2016 09:29
Last modified: 23 Sep 2017 06:08
Related URLs:
URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/58750
Export data:
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)