On the dual-cone nature of the conical refraction phenomenon

Abstract

In conical refraction (CR), a focused Gaussian input beam passing through a biaxial crystal and parallel to one of the optic axes is transformed into a pair of concentric bright rings split by a dark (Poggendorff) ring at the focal plane. Here, we show the generation of a CR transverse pattern that does not present the Poggendorff fine splitting at the focal plane, i.e. it forms a single light ring. This light ring is generated from a non-homogeneously polarized input light beam obtained by using a spatially inhomogeneous polarizer that mimics the characteristic CR polarization distribution. This polarizer allows modulating the relative intensity between the two CR light cones in accordance with the recently proposed dual--cone model of the CR phenomenon. We show that the absence of interfering rings at the focal plane is caused by the selection of one of the two CR cones.

References in corpus (8)

• Atom Interferometers
• Optical vault: reconfigurable bottle beam by conically refracted light
• Blue-detuned optical ring trap for Bose-Einstein condensates based on conical refraction
• Polarization tailored novel vector beams based on conical refraction
• Super-Gaussian conical refraction beam
• Multiple rings formation in cascaded conical refraction
• Generating a three dimensional dark focus from a single conically refracted light beam
• Characterising Conical Refraction Optical Tweezers

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Evolution of vortices created by conical diffraction in biaxial crystals versus orbital angular momentum