An experiment on the shifts of reflected C-lines

Abstract

An experiment is described that tests theoretical predictions on how C-lines incident obliquely on a surface behave on reflection. C-lines in a polarised wave are the analogues of the optical vortices carried by a complex scalar wave, which is the usual model for describing light and other electromagnetic waves. The centre of a laser beam that carries a (degenerate) C-line is shifted on reflection by the well-known Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov effects, but the C-line itself splits into two, both of which are shifted longitudinally and laterally; their shifts are different from that of the beam centre. To maximise the effect to be measured, internal reflection in a glass prism close to the critical angle was used. In a simple situation like this two recently published independent theories of C-line reflection overlap and it is shown that their predictions are identical. The measured differences in the lateral shifts of the two reflected C-lines are compared with theoretical expectations over a range of incidence angles.

9 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (5)

• How orbital angular momentum affects beam shifts in optical reflection
• Topological aberration of optical vortex beams and singularimetry of dielectric interfaces
• Generalized shifts and weak values for polarization components of reflected light beams
• Observation of OAM sidebands due to optical reflection
• Total Internal Reflection of Orbital Angular Momentum Beams