Superpositions of up to six plane waves without electric-field interference

Abstract

Superpositions of coherent light waves typically interfere. We present superpositions of up to six plane waves which defy this expectation by having a perfectly homogeneous mean square of the electric field. For many applications in optics these superpositions can be seen as having a homogeneous intensity. Our superpositions show interesting one- two- and three dimensional patterns in their helicity densities, including several that support bright regions of superchirality. Our superpositions might be used to write chiral patterns in certain materials and, conversely, such materials might be used as the basis of an 'optical helicity' camera capable of recording spatial variations in helicity.

arXiv comment10 pages, 8 figures, Accepted in Optica

References in corpus (5)

• Matter-wave interference with particles selected from a molecular library with masses exceeding 10000 amu
• Mechanical separation of chiral dipoles by chiral light
• Theory and experimental verification of Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometry
• Optical helicity of interfering waves
• The conditions for the preservation of duality symmetry in a linear medium

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Paraxial Skyrmionic beams
• Momentum-space geometric structure of helical evanescent waves and its implications on near-field directionality
• Generation of Optical Chirality Patterns with Plane Waves, Evanescent Waves and Surface Plasmon Waves
• On lines of constant polarisation in structured light beams
• Quantum phases of bosonic chiral molecules in helicity lattices
• Superchiral photons unveil magnetic circular dichroism
• Optical polarization skyrmionic fields in free space
• Inverse design of arbitrary optical helicity patterns