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Creating polarization singularities with an N-pinhole interferometer

Author: Schoonover, R.W. · Visser, T.D.
Faculty:Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Department:Telecommunications
Type:Article/Letter to the Editor
Date:2009-04-09
Publisher: American Physical Society
Source:Physical Review A, 79 (4), 2009 ; DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.79.043809
ISSN: 1050-2947
Rights: (c) 2009 The Authors ; American Physical Society

Recent studies of singularities in scalar wave fields in Young’s classic experiment are extended to electromagnetic fields diffracted by an N-pinhole interferometer. Linearly polarized fields whose direction of polarization may be different at each pinhole are examined. It is shown that for two pinholes, only surfaces of linear polarization are created. For N larger than two, a rich structure of polarization singularities is found even when the location of the pinholes is arbitrary. In addition, there can be regions where the spectral density of the field is zero.

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