Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Optics Express

Controlling the interactions of space-variant polarization beams with rubidium vapor using external magnetic fields

Liron Stern, Anat Szapiro, Eliran Talker, Uriel Levy

Published Feb 25, 2016• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Space variant beams are of great importance for a variety of applications that have emerged in recent years. As such, manipulation of their degrees of freedom is highly desired. Here, we study the general interaction of space variant beams with a magnetically influenced Rb medium exploiting the atoms versatile properties in terms of frequency and intensity dependent circular dichroism and circular birefringence. We present the particular cases of radially polarized and hybrid polarized beams where the control of the polarization states is demonstrated experimentally. Moreover, we show that such an atomic system can be used as a tunable analyzer for space variant beams. Finally, exploiting the non-linear properties of Rb vapor, we show that we can control the circular birefringence all optically, and thus modulate the polarization of the radial polarized beam.

DOI
10.1364/oe.24.004834

Related papers

Interactions of space-variant polarization beams with Zeeman-shifted rubidium vapor

Anat Szapiro, Liron Stern, Uriel Levy

Space variant beams are of great importance as a variety of applications have emerged in recent years. As such, manipulation of their degrees of freedom is highly desired. Here, by exploiting the circular dichroism and circular birefringence in a Zeeman-shifted Rb medium, we study the general interaction of space variant beams with such a medium. We present two particular cases of radial polarization and hybrid polarization beams where the control of the polarization states is demonstrated experimentally. Moreover, we show that a Zeeman-shifted atomic system can be used as an analyzer for such space variant beams

arXiv:1501.04218•Jan 17, 2015•0 citations

Interactions of space variant polarization beams with Zeeman-shifted rubidium vapor

Anat Szapiro, Liron Stern, Uriel Levy

We experimentally demonstrate the interaction between space variant polarization beams with a Zeeman shifted rubidium vapor operating as a controlled circular birefringence and dichroism media. Full Stokes parameters measurements allows for mapping the polarization distribution.

•Jan 1, 2015•0 citations

Controllable transmission of vector beams in dichroic medium

Yun-Ke Li, Jinwen Wang, Xin Yang +6 more

Vector beams with spatially varying polarization distribution in the wavefront plane have received increasing attention in recent years. The manipulation of vector beams both in intensity and polarization distributions is highly desired and under development. In this work, we study the transmission property of vector beams through warm rubidium vapor and realize controllable transmission of vector beams based on atomic dichroism. By utilizing the linearly polarized beam and vector beams as the pump and probe beams in a pump–probe configuration, a spatially-dependent dichroism can be obtained, which leads to spatially varied absorption of the probe beam. The controllable intensity distribution of the probe beam, as a two-petal pattern, can rotate with the variation of the pump beam's polarization states. We experimentally demonstrate the mechanism of dichroism with linear polarization light and provide an explanation based on the optical pumping effect. Alternatively, the varying trend of the probe beam's intensity is also interpreted by utilizing the Jones matrix. Our results are thus beneficial for providing potential applications in optical manipulation in atomic ensembles.

Chinese Physics B•Jan 1, 2019•6 citations

Collapse of hybrid vector beam in Rb atomic vapor

Huajie Hu, Dajin Luo, Churong Pan +6 more

In recent years, many researchers have tried to control and design the collapsing behavior of light beams in nonlinear media. Vector beams coupling with spin and orbit angular momentum freedom have attracted more and more attention. In this Letter, we study the collapse of a hybrid vector beam (HVB) propagating through rubidium atomic vapor. First, the HVB collapses into filaments located at positions with linear polarization. As propagation distance in atomic vapor increases, the locations of the filaments switch from positions with linear polarization to those with circular polarization. In this process, the absorption of the medium plays an important role. Results indicate that the absorption can be used as a degree of freedom to modulate the filamentation. Furthermore, by analyzing the polarization angle of an elliptically polarized position on the transverse plane of the HVB, we demonstrate the evolution of polarization distribution of HVB during propagation. Such results could have application in manipulating other structured beams and could be potentially applied to realize optical switches or logic for information processing.

Optics Letters•May 4, 2021•15 citations

Spatio-spectral vector light created by optical activity in rubidium vapor

Richard Aguiar Maduro, Riaan Schmidt, Mustafa Al Khafaji +5 more

We demonstrate a pump-probe scheme in which an atomic vapor is optically pumped with circularly polarized light and probed with a vector vortex beam. The pump induces a macroscopic magnetization in the medium, which gives rise to frequency-dependent circular dichroism and birefringence. The vortex probe, characterized by spatially varying polarization, maps this optical activity onto the spatial structure of the transmitted light, thereby generating correlations between the frequency, polarization, and spatial degrees of freedom. Measuring the intensity profile in a suitable polarization component then allows us to perform spatially resolved polarization spectroscopy. We demonstrate the translation of frequency shifts into an image rotation, observing on resonance a rotation in the order of 98 mrad per MHz. These findings may find applications in high-precision spectroscopy, magnetometry, and the generation of hybrid entanglement.

•May 19, 2026•0 citations

Transformation of vector modes by the Faraday effect in strong magnetic fields

Sphinx J. Svensson, Craig J. A. Millar, Danielle Pizzey +2 more

Large Faraday rotations can be generated by circular birefringence of atomic samples in an axial magnetic field in the vicinity of atomic resonance lines. More generally, magneto-optical effects in atomic samples include circular dichroism in addition to birefringence, resulting in a modification of the ellipticity as well as the polarization alignment. Usually such effects are investigated for homogeneous linear polarizations, but the mechanisms apply also to polarization structures such as vector vortices. We investigate the effect of optical activity of a rubidium vapor in the hyperfine Paschen–Back regime along the D2 line, for the example of azimuthally polarized input light. We show that for low atomic densities, circular birefringence dominates over dichroism, and azimuthal polarization is rotated toward radial polarization. The rotation angle increases with increasing optical densities. At high vapor temperatures, dichroism becomes more and more relevant, leading to intricate variations of both alignment and ellipticity. Our results shine new light on the interplay between different magneto-optic effects at strong magnetic fields. Their highly sensitive response to detuning may find applications in spectroscopy and quantum sensing.

arXiv:2607.15088•Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Sep 4, 2026•0 citations
Space variant beams are of great importance for a variety of applications that have emerged in recent years. As such, manipulation of their degrees of freedom is highly desired. Here, we study the general interaction of space variant beams with a magnetically influenced Rb medium exploiting the atoms versatile properties in terms of frequency and intensity dependent circular dichroism and circular birefringence. We present the particular cases of radially polarized and hybrid polarized beams where the control of the polarization states is demonstrated experimentally. Moreover, we show that such an atomic system can be used as a tunable analyzer for space variant beams. Finally, exploiting the non-linear properties of Rb vapor, we show that we can control the circular birefringence all optically, and thus modulate the polarization of the radial polarized beam.
Space variant beams are of great importance as a variety of applications have emerged in recent years. As such, manipulation of their degrees of freedom is highly desired. Here, by exploiting the circular dichroism and circular birefringence in a Zeeman-shifted Rb medium, we study the general interaction of space variant beams with such a medium. We present two particular cases of radial polarization and hybrid polarization beams where the control of the polarization states is demonstrated experimentally. Moreover, we show that a Zeeman-shifted atomic system can be used as an analyzer for such space variant beams
Vector beams with spatially varying polarization distribution in the wavefront plane have received increasing attention in recent years. The manipulation of vector beams both in intensity and polarization distributions is highly desired and under development. In this work, we study the transmission property of vector beams through warm rubidium vapor and realize controllable transmission of vector beams based on atomic dichroism. By utilizing the linearly polarized beam and vector beams as the pump and probe beams in a pump–probe configuration, a spatially-dependent dichroism can be obtained, which leads to spatially varied absorption of the probe beam. The controllable intensity distribution of the probe beam, as a two-petal pattern, can rotate with the variation of the pump beam's polarization states. We experimentally demonstrate the mechanism of dichroism with linear polarization light and provide an explanation based on the optical pumping effect. Alternatively, the varying trend of the probe beam's intensity is also interpreted by utilizing the Jones matrix. Our results are thus beneficial for providing potential applications in optical manipulation in atomic ensembles.
In recent years, many researchers have tried to control and design the collapsing behavior of light beams in nonlinear media. Vector beams coupling with spin and orbit angular momentum freedom have attracted more and more attention. In this Letter, we study the collapse of a hybrid vector beam (HVB) propagating through rubidium atomic vapor. First, the HVB collapses into filaments located at positions with linear polarization. As propagation distance in atomic vapor increases, the locations of the filaments switch from positions with linear polarization to those with circular polarization. In this process, the absorption of the medium plays an important role. Results indicate that the absorption can be used as a degree of freedom to modulate the filamentation. Furthermore, by analyzing the polarization angle of an elliptically polarized position on the transverse plane of the HVB, we demonstrate the evolution of polarization distribution of HVB during propagation. Such results could have application in manipulating other structured beams and could be potentially applied to realize optical switches or logic for information processing.
We demonstrate a pump-probe scheme in which an atomic vapor is optically pumped with circularly polarized light and probed with a vector vortex beam. The pump induces a macroscopic magnetization in the medium, which gives rise to frequency-dependent circular dichroism and birefringence. The vortex probe, characterized by spatially varying polarization, maps this optical activity onto the spatial structure of the transmitted light, thereby generating correlations between the frequency, polarization, and spatial degrees of freedom. Measuring the intensity profile in a suitable polarization component then allows us to perform spatially resolved polarization spectroscopy. We demonstrate the translation of frequency shifts into an image rotation, observing on resonance a rotation in the order of 98 mrad per MHz. These findings may find applications in high-precision spectroscopy, magnetometry, and the generation of hybrid entanglement.
Large Faraday rotations can be generated by circular birefringence of atomic samples in an axial magnetic field in the vicinity of atomic resonance lines. More generally, magneto-optical effects in atomic samples include circular dichroism in addition to birefringence, resulting in a modification of the ellipticity as well as the polarization alignment. Usually such effects are investigated for homogeneous linear polarizations, but the mechanisms apply also to polarization structures such as vector vortices. We investigate the effect of optical activity of a rubidium vapor in the hyperfine Paschen–Back regime along the D2 line, for the example of azimuthally polarized input light. We show that for low atomic densities, circular birefringence dominates over dichroism, and azimuthal polarization is rotated toward radial polarization. The rotation angle increases with increasing optical densities. At high vapor temperatures, dichroism becomes more and more relevant, leading to intricate variations of both alignment and ellipticity. Our results shine new light on the interplay between different magneto-optic effects at strong magnetic fields. Their highly sensitive response to detuning may find applications in spectroscopy and quantum sensing.