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Circular polarization before and after the sharp focus for linearly polarized light
S.S. Stafeev 1,2, V.D. Zaitsev 1,2, V.V. Kotlyar 1,2

1 IPSI RAS – Branch of the FSRC "Crystallography and Photonics" RAS,
443001, Samara, Russia, Molodogvardeyskaya 151,
2 Samara National Research University, 443086, Samara, Russia, Moskovskoye Shosse 34

 PDF, 1237 kB

DOI: 10.18287/2412-6179-CO-1070

Pages: 381-387.

Full text of article: Russian language.

Abstract:
We consider sharp focusing of a linearly polarized light beam. Using the Richards-Wolf formalism, we show that before and after the focal plane there are cross-section regions in which the polarization is circular (elliptical). When passing through the focal plane, the direction of rotation of the polarization vector is reversed. If before the focus the light is left-hand circular polarized at a definite region of the beam cross-section, then exactly at the focus the polarization becomes linear at this cross-section region, before becoming right circular polarized after the focus at this region. This effect allows linearly polarized light to be used to rotate weakly absorbing dielectric microparticles around their center of mass.

Keywords:
linear and circular polarization, sharp focusing, Richards-Wolf formulas, Stokes vector, spin angular momentum.

Citation:
Stafeev SS, Zaitsev VD, Kotlyar VV. Circular polarization before and after the sharp focus for linearly polarized light. Computer Optics 2022; 46(3): 381-387. DOI: 10.18287/2412-6179-CO-1070.

Acknowledgements:
This work was partly funded by the Russian Science Foundation under project No. 18-19-00595 (Section "Theoretical background"), grant to Samara University for the implementation of the strategic academic leadership program "Priority-2030  (Section "Numerical simulation by Richards-Wolf formulae"), and the RF Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the government project of the FSRC "Crystallography and Photonics" RAS (Section “Numerical simulation by a FDTD-method”).

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