Optical amplitude and polarization mixing in birefringent media

R. Horák

I. C. Khoo

In birefringent nonlinear optical media, it is shown that phase-matched wave-mixing processes occur naturally among the extraordinary and ordinary wave components of a strong pump and a weak probe beam. The necessary and sufficient conditions that these parametric processes may lead to amplification and or polarization switching of the probe beam are quantitatively analyzed.

Genko T. Genov, Andon A. Rangelov, Nikolay V. Vitanov

GYA PRASAD, Rajneesh Joshi

We theoretically investigate a novel mechanism for controlling the quantum degree of polarization of single- and multi-photon light fields through the combined effects of birefringence and dispersion in optical media. While birefringence alone introduces a unitary phase shift between horizontal (H) and vertical (V) polarization modes, the inclusion of dispersion produces frequency-dependent effects that couple polarization with spectral degrees of freedom, thereby inducing decoherence and transforming the quantum state into a mixed state. By employing an electro-optically controlled nematic liquid crystal as the birefringent medium, this decoherence process can be harnessed to achieve tunable control of the quantum degree of polarization. We model this voltage-dependent tunability theoretically and propose methods for experimental verification.

Krishna Thyagarajan

GYA PRASAD, Rajneesh Joshi

We theoretically investigate a novel mechanism for controlling the quantum degree of polarization of single- and multi-photon light fields through the combined effects of birefringence and dispersion in optical media. While birefringence alone introduces a unitary phase shift between horizontal (H) and vertical (V) polarization modes, the inclusion of dispersion produces frequency-dependent effects that couple polarization with spectral degrees of freedom, thereby inducing decoherence and transforming the quantum state into a mixed state. By employing an electro-optically controlled nematic liquid crystal as the birefringent medium, this decoherence process can be harnessed to achieve tunable control of the quantum degree of polarization. We model this voltage-dependent tunability theoretically and propose methods for experimental verification.