Conical Diffraction Photonics
type: CreativeWork
description: Recent interest in conical diffraction (CD) has led to a large increase in experimental and theoretical investigations over the last two decades, a marked change from the previous 160 quiet years in the field. Once dismissed as an optical curiosity, the phenomenon has emerged as a fascinating area with potential for a large number of practical applications many of which have been realised while others are still being discovered. In this thesis a number of aspects of the theory as recently described are experimentally investigated with a view to strengthening the current theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. Developing from single crystal CD (the simplest case), through cascade CD, nonlinear CD, and with a particular emphasis on the polarisation effects of the phenomenon, a number of areas are investigated. Single crystal CD with circularly (CPL), linearly (LPL), azimuthally and radially polarised light (APL and RPL) is examined. The effect of LPL in removing a section of the ring orthogonally polarised to the incident beam is shown, along with the first investigation into the effects of RPL and APL polarisation effects in CD. The effect of the incident beam spot size on the pattern developed is also investigated and shown to conform to the theory. All findings show good agreement with the current theory. Cascade CD with various numbers of crystals and incident beam polarisations is investigated. Included in these experiments are a variable two crystal cascade and the first demonstration of the different patterns produced for a three crystal cascade when left and right circularly polarised light (LCPL and RCPL, respectively) are used, as recently predicted. As with the single crystal case, results are in agreement with theory. In both the single and cascade cases a cross section of the beam is captured to demonstrated the free space evolution of a CD beam. Simultaneous second harmonic generation (SHG) and CD from a single crystal is described in an update of B…
abstract: Recent interest in conical diffraction (CD) has led to a large increase in experimental and theoretical investigations over the last two decades, a marked change from the previous 160 quiet years in the field. Once dismissed as an optical curiosity, the phenomenon has emerged as a fascinating area with potential for a large number of practical applications many of which have been realised while others are still being discovered. In this thesis a number of aspects of the theory as recently described are experimentally investigated with a view to strengthening the current theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. Developing from single crystal CD (the simplest case), through cascade CD, nonlinear CD, and with a particular emphasis on the polarisation effects of the phenomenon, a number of areas are investigated. Single crystal CD with circularly (CPL), linearly (LPL), azimuthally and radially polarised light (APL and RPL) is examined. The effect of LPL in removing a section of the ring orthogonally polarised to the incident beam is shown, along with the first investigation into the effects of RPL and APL polarisation effects in CD. The effect of the incident beam spot size on the pattern developed is also investigated and shown to conform to the theory. All findings show good agreement with the current theory. Cascade CD with various numbers of crystals and incident beam polarisations is investigated. Included in these experiments are a variable two crystal cascade and the first demonstration of the different patterns produced for a three crystal cascade when left and right circularly polarised light (LCPL and RCPL, respectively) are used, as recently predicted. As with the single crystal case, results are in agreement with theory. In both the single and cascade cases a cross section of the beam is captured to demonstrated the free space evolution of a CD beam. Simultaneous second harmonic generation (SHG) and CD from a single crystal is described in an update of B…
author: Grant, Stephen D.
language: eng
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:08:19Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee