Axial dependence of optical weak measurements in the critical region

Abstract

The interference between optical beams of different polarizations plays a fundamental role in reproducing the optical analog of the electron spin weak measurement. The extraordinary point in optical weak measurements is represented by the possibility to estimate with great accuracy the Goos-Haenchen (GH) shift by measuring the distance between the peak of the outgoing beams for two opposite rotation angles of the polarizers located before and after the dielectric block. Starting from the numerical calculation of the GH shift, which clearly shows a frequency crossover for incidence near to the critical angle, we present a detailed study of the interference between s and p polarized waves in the critical region. This allows to determine in which conditions it is possible to avoid axial deformations and reproduce the GH curves. In view of a possible experimental implementation, we give the expected weak measurement curves for Gaussian lasers of different beam waist sizes propagating through borosilicate (BK7) and fused silica dielectric blocks.

16 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov beam shifts: An overview
• The analogy between optical beam shifts and quantum weak measurements
• Generalized shifts and weak values for polarization components of reflected light beams
• Maximal breaking of symmetry at critical angle and closed form expression for angular deviations of the Snell law

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Weak measurement og the composite Goo-Haenchen shift in the critical region
• The oscillatory behavior of light in the composite Goos-Haenchen shift
• Optimizing weak measurements to detect angular deviations
• Lateral shifts and angular deviations of Gaussian optical beams reflected by and transmitted through dielectric blocks: A tutorial review
• Experimental evidence of laser power oscillations induced by the relative Fresnel (Goos-Haenchen) phase