A. TURPIN – 18 OCTOBRE

In 1832 Hamilton predicted that a collimated light beam propagating through a biaxial crystal parallel to one of its optical axes refracts as a slanted cone within the crystal and emerges as a hollow light cylinder, this optical effect being named as conical refraction (CR). In this seminar, I will explain the CR phenomenon following different approaches that allow understanding light propagation in biaxial crystals, including the case of multiple crystals in cascade. We will also see the description of the singular properties of the CR beams, presenting some examples such as optical bottle beams and beams carrying orbital angular momentum. All these features will serve to introduce some of the most appealing applications of CR in the fields of optical trapping, free-space optical communications, polarization metrology, super-resolution imaging, two-photon polymerization, and lasers.

Légende : Illustration of conical refraction of an ideally collimated beam propagating through a biaxial crystal