Title
Polarimetry studies on birefringent materials in optical tweezers
Date Issued
01 January 2020
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Herne C.M.
Lyons F.E.
Sam A.
Colgate University
Publisher(s)
SPIE
Abstract
Transfer of spin angular momentum to birefringent materials is widely used in optical tweezers because of the vast array of applications and the ease with which it is generated. With circularly or elliptically polarized light, spin angular momentum is imparted to internally birefringent materials and objects with shape birefringence. In this work, we use polarimetry to spatially map the change in angular momentum of light traveling through birefringent objects. By directly measuring the change in polarization of light passing through materials, we can infer the transferred torque. Our objects are trapped with a linearly polarized beam at 660 nm and polarimetry is performed using a counter-propagating low-power probe beam at 633 nm. We measure six output polarizations each for a range of different input polarizations of the probe to form a polarization map. Using this technique we perform polarimetry on rhombohedral calcite crystals trapped in two distinct orientations, one face up with one side normal to the probe beam, and one corner up with the optic axis running parallel to the beam axis. The polarization changes significantly where the probe beam travels through an edge or corner of the crystal and is uniform across crystal faces. We show the differences in the polarimetry measurements between these orientations to fully understand the generated torque.
Volume
11463
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Óptica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85091965812
ISBN
9781510637320
ISSN of the container
0277786X
Conference
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Sponsor(s)
The Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus