Padé approximants of the Born series of electromagnetic scattering by a diffraction grating

We present the realization of a vectorial perturbation method based on the Born series applied to strong electromagnetic scattering problems. We present the general theoretical formalism and show a semianalytical implementation for scattering by diffraction gratings. We are particularly interested in the strong scattering regime, where the Born...

Electromagnetic scattering beyond the weak regime: Solving the problem of divergent Born perturbation series by Padé approximants

Electromagnetic scattering is the main phenomenon behind all optical measurement methods where one aims to retrieve the shape or physical properties of an unknown object by measuring how it scatters an incident optical field. Such an inverse problem is often approached by solving, several times, the corresponding direct scattering problem and...

El Gawhary, Van Mechelen, and Urbach reply

Role of Radial Charges on the Angular Momentum of Electromagnetic Fields: Spin- 3/2 Light

Electromagnetic fields carry a linear and an angular momentum, the first being responsible for the existence of the radiation pressure and the second for the transfer of torque from electromagnetic radiation to matter. The angular momentum is considered to have two components, one due to the polarization state of the field, usually called...

Exploiting evanescent-wave amplification for subwavelength low-contrast particle detection

The classical problem of subwavelength particle detection on a flat surface is especially challenging when the refractive index of the particle is close to that of the substrate. We demonstrate a method to improve the detection ability several times for such a situation, by enhancing the "forbidden" evanescent waves in the substrate using the...

Nonexistence of pure S- and P-polarized surface waves at the interface between a perfect dielectric and a real metal

It is known that, at optical frequencies, a simple interface between a perfect dielectric and a real metal can sustain the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons only for P-polarized electromagnetic waves, being S-polarized surface plasmons are prohibited. In this work, we formally show that, strictly speaking, both polarization states are in...

Through-focus phase retrieval and its connection to the spatial correlation for propagating fields

Through-focus phase retrieval methods aim to retrieve the phase of an optical field from its intensity distribution measured at different planes in the focal region. By using the concept of spatial correlation for propagating fields, for both the complex amplitude and the intensity of a field, we can infer which planes are suitable to retrieve...

Restoration of s-polarized evanescent waves and subwavelength imaging by a single dielectric slab

It was predicted a few years ago that a medium with negative index of refraction would allow for perfect imaging. Although no material has been found so far that behaves as a perfect lens, some experiments confirmed the theoretical predictions in the near-field, or quasi-static, regime where the behaviour of a negative index medium can be...

Performance analysis of coherent optical scatterometry

Scatterometry is a well established technique currently utilized in research, as well as in industrial applications, to retrieve the properties of a given scatterer (the target) by looking at how the light coming from a certain source is diffracted in the far field. Currently the light source is often a discharge lamp that, after wavelength...

Coherent transient phenomena in quantum systems by spatially shaping femtosecond optical pulses

Providing a femtosecond optical pulse with a proper transverse spatial profile represents a fast and relatively simple method to force a quantum system to follow a prescribed temporal evolution. In the present work, we show that the quantum system presents a surprisingly high sensitivity with respect to the spatial shape of the pulse. We discuss...