We describe an interferometer based on the Pancharatnam phase in which the extra phase introduced is of purely geometric origin, with no contributions from the dynamic phase. We use a cholesteric liquid crystal film as a circular analyser, and a sheet polarizer as a linear analyser, to project each polarization state on the next one. This experiment can also be viewed as a demonstration of Berry's phase arising from quantum measurements.

Journal of Modern OpticsApr 1, 199721 citations

A simple demonstration of the Pancharatnam phase as a geometric phase

P. Hariharan, Sushil A. Mujumdar, Hema Ramachandran

To demonstrate the Pancharatnam phase as a geometric (Berry's) phase, each polarization state must be obtained by projecting the previous state on it. We describe a simple interferometric arrangement for such a demonstration which only uses a single rotation linear analyser to introduce a continuously variable phase difference between the two beams.

Journal of Modern OpticsJul 1, 19999 citations