{"id":87772,"date":"2015-01-29T14:33:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=87772"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:16:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:16:43","slug":"generating-mobius-strips-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/generating-mobius-strips-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Generating M\u00f6bius strips of light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers experimentally produce these structures from light polarization<\/h2>\n

A collaboration between researchers from Canada, Europe, and the United States\u00a0has experimentally produced M\u00f6bius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light\u2019s electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.<\/p>\n

M\u00f6bius strips are easy to create. Take a strip of paper, twist it once and join up the ends. That\u2019s it, you have created a M\u00f6bius strip: a three dimensional structure that has only one side. Millions of school children do exactly this in classrooms every year. But finding M\u00f6bius strips occurring naturally is another issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the very few known examples of a M\u00f6bius structure appearing in nature,\u201d states Robert W. Boyd, professor of optics and physics at the University of Rochester and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Nonlinear Optics at the University of Ottawa. Boyd is one of the senior authors of the paper describing this research, which is published online by Science<\/em> this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

Demonstrating that a M\u00f6bius strip can be made of polarization states of light is interesting not only for improving the fundamental understanding of optical polarization but also because it could be used to generate complex structures at micro and nanoscales.<\/p>\n

Light is an electromagnetic wave, and as such it has an electromagnetic field. The direction in which the electric component of this field oscillates is commonly referred to as the light\u2019s polarization. Polarization, for example, is the key to understanding glare-reducing polarized sunglasses and making 3D cinema possible. The polarization of sunlight beams is usually random, which means the orientation of the electric field is independent from one beam to another. But when light is reflected from many objects \u2013 for example water, glass, or a highway\u2019s surface \u2013 the reflected light becomes polarized in a specific direction, parallel to the surface that is reflecting the light. Polarized sunglasses are able to block light polarized in that direction, thereby greatly reducing the glare but letting other light through unobstructed.<\/p>\n

In their experiment, to produce these M\u00f6bius strips, the researchers use a specific, rather exotic, type of light beam: a tightly focused laser beam that they refer to as structured light. Structured light has a very specific polarization and intensity distribution in the light beam \u2013 and therefore the electromagnetic field oscillates differently for different parts of the beam. It is not always at right angles to the direction the light is moving in, as would be the case in a standard laser beam. In this highly structured beam, there will be components of the electric field in all three dimensions. Moreover, different parts of the beam will have different electric field components in different directions.<\/p>\n

To create the structured beam and measure its polarization, the researchers used a series of optical tools. The laser light is first passed through a q-plate \u2013 effectively a liquid crystal lens developed by Lorenzo Marrucci and Ebrahim Karimi in Naples. This creates the structured beam.<\/p>\n

To image the polarization the researchers used a nanoparticle. This particle was scanned over the cross-section of the beam and the researchers observed the light it scattered. By determining how the light was scattered, and effectively using it as an interferometer, the polarization of the light beam at the focus is detected, and consequently the M\u00f6bius strips emerge. This procedure was developed by Gerd Leuchs and Peter Banzer in Erlangen.<\/p>\n

The M\u00f6bius strips show how the electric field is oriented at each position on a circular path surrounding the axis of the laser beam. \u00a0Depending on the particulars of the structure of laser beam, the researchers observe M\u00f6bius strips of polarization having 3\/2 or 5\/2 twists (for example, see the image above). \u00a0These strips demonstrate the rich structure that a light beam can possess at very small, subwavelength distance scales, Boyd explained. \u00a0He added that, moreover, the measurement technique used here holds great promise for\u00a0probing the nanostructure of other sorts of light beams.<\/p>\n

The full list of authors for the paper titled \u201cObservation of optical polarization M\u00f6bius strips\u201d is: Thomas Bauer,\u00a0Peter Banzer,\u00a0Ebrahim Karimi,\u00a0Sergej Orlov,\u00a0Andrea Rubano,\u00a0Lorenzo Marrucci, Enrico Santamato,\u00a0 Robert W Boyd,\u00a0and\u00a0Gerd Leuchs. The paper can be found here: http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/early\/2015\/01\/28\/science.1260635.abstract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A collaboration between researchers from Canada, Europe, and Rochester has experimentally produced M\u00f6bius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light\u2019s electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":87812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[18652,16822,18572,19062,16072,37822],"class_list":["post-87772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-institute-of-optics","tag-nanoparticles","tag-research-finding","tag-robert-boyd","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-urnano"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGenerating M\u00f6bius strips of light<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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