RUI: Three-Dimensional Spatial and Polarization Modes in Classical and Quantum Light Fields

普通观众摘要：来自激光的光束通常在中间最亮，朝向边缘变得较暗，并在穿过太空时保持基本模式。可以操纵这样的光束来产生横跨和沿着光束具有复杂得多的图案的光束。PI和他的学生将继续探索这种新型光束及其应用。这类研究可能会对创造用于医学诊断的新型成像技术和增加光在通信中携带的信息量的新方法产生影响。PI和他的团队将研究一种新型的光束，被称为无衍射光束，它具有至少在有限距离内不扩散或收缩的有趣特性。这样的光束可以用来模拟物理情况，这些情况可能很难通过其他方法进行调查，或者为当今的研究提供补充视角。这种类型的研究将为创造新的基于光的技术提供新的方法。在这项研究中，PI和他们的同事，大部分是本科生，将使用光操纵方面的新兴技术，以新的方式重塑和研究光。除了主要研究之外，直接的副产品包括创建新的教学实验室，旨在培养必须了解新技术中使用的量子物理的新兴劳动力。技术受众摘要：在这项研究中，PI和他的同事们的目标是操纵光束，以研究幅度、相位和偏振的新空间排列中的标量和矢量光图案，这些图案随着光的传播而演变和重新分布。这些图案被称为无衍射光束。该小组将研究这些光束中的光学奇点，如光学涡旋和焦散，这些排列以前没有被研究过。这些新的场结构很重要，因为它们揭示了不容易预测的潜在现象。由于亥姆霍兹波方程和薛定谔方程之间的相似之处，我们将研究的一个特殊问题是用光来模拟量子力学问题。研究人员还将研究新的三维极化模式，其中包括模拟自旋扭曲模式的极化椭圆的旋转。他们将通过单光子实验，以经典和量子力学的方式进行这些研究。在量子层面上，研究将涉及新的空间关联，涉及传播维度。这些研究为理解光波模式并将其用于成像、操纵和通信等光子应用开辟了新的范式。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

General audience abstract:The beam of light coming from a laser is typically brightest in the middle becoming dimmer towards the edges and keeps that basic pattern as it moves through space. It is possible to manipulate such a beam to produce one with much more complicated patterns across and along the beam. The PI and his students will be continuing the exploration of such novel light beams and their applications. Such studies may have an impact in the creation of new types of imaging for medical diagnosis and new ways for increasing the amount of information carried by light in communications. The PI and his team will investigate one type of novel light beam, known as a non-diffracting beam which has the interesting property of not spreading or shrinking, at least over a limited distance. Such beams can be used to simulate physical situations that may be intractable to investigate by other means, or give complementary perspectives to present-day studies. This type of research will offer new approaches for the creation of novel light-based technologies. In this research the PI and co-workers, mostly undergraduates, will use emerging technologies in light manipulation to reshape and study light in new ways. Immediate byproducts beyond the main research include creating new instructional laboratories designed to educate an emerging workforce that must understand the quantum physics used in new technologies.Technical audience abstract:In this study the PI and coworkers aim at manipulating light beams to study scalar and vectorial light patterns in new spatial arrangements of amplitude, phase and polarization, which evolve and redistribute as the light propagates. These patterns are known as non-diffracting beams. The group will study optical singularities in these beams, such as optical vortices and caustics, in arrangements that have not been previously investigated. These new configurations of fields are important because they unravel underlying phenomena that are not easily predicted. A particular problem that will be investigated uses light to simulate quantum mechanical problems due to similarities between the Helmholtz wave equation and the Schrodinger equation. The researchers will also study new polarization patterns in three dimensions that involve rotations of the polarization ellipse that mimic twisted patterns of spins. They will do these investigations classically as well as quantum mechanically via experiments with single photons. At the quantum level, the studies will involve new spatial correlations that involve the propagation dimension. These studies open new paradigms for understanding light-wave patterns and to use them in photonic applications such as imaging, manipulation and communications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.