Topological phase structure of vector vortex beams

Abstract

The topological phase acquired by vector vortex optical beams is investigated. Under local unitary operations on their polarization and transverse degrees of freedom, the vector vortices can only acquire discrete geometric phase values, 0 or $\pi$, associated with closed paths belonging to different homotopy classes on the SO(3) manifold. These discrete values are demonstrated through interferometric measurements and the spin-orbit mode separability is associated to the visibility of the interference patterns. The local unitary operations performed on the vector vortices involved both polarization and transverse mode transformations with birefringent wave plates and astigmatic mode converters. The experimental results agree with our theoretical simulations and generalize our previous results obtained with polarization transformations only.

6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Review A

References in corpus (9)

• Complete experimental toolbox for alignment-free quantum communication
• Spin-orbit hybrid entanglement of photons and quantum contextuality
• Quantum communication without alignment using multiple-qubit single-photon states
• Integrated multi vector vortex beam generator
• Phase Dynamics of Two Entangled Qubits
• Experimental Observation of a Topological Phase in the Maximally Entangled State of a Pair of Qubits
• Topological phases and multiqubit entanglement
• Fractional topological phase on spatially encoded photonic qudits
• Three-qubit topological phase on entangled photon pairs

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Geometric phases in quantum information
• Quantum and classical separability of spin-orbit laser modes
• Geometric phases of light: insights from fibre bundle theory
• Quantum correlations in separable multi-mode states and in classically entangled light
• Experimental investigation of enviroment--induced entanglement using an all--optical setup
• Spontaneous formation of vector vortex beams in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with feedback
• Quantifying classical entanglement using polarimetry: Spatially-inhomogeneously polarized beams