Geometric phase and surface plasmons in Young's interference

Preeti Sharma, Bhaskar Kanseri

Ali A. Kamli, Jabir Wali Hakami, Muhammad Suhail Zubairy

Aleksi Leinonen, Taco D. Visser, Ari T. Friberg +1 more

The geometric and dynamic phases are generally treated as independent and together give rise to the total phase of a system. Here, we present a scenario in which these two phases become strongly interdependent. We achieve this by introducing a modified Young's double-slit configuration that supports surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating between the slits. Remarkably, by varying the slit separation distance, and hence the dynamic SPP phase, by just a single plasmon wavelength, the geometric phase can be significantly modified.

Michael J. Steel

Antti Hannonen, Henri Partanen, Aleksi Leinonen +4 more

Young’s dual-pinhole interference experiment with arbitrary fully correlated and polarized vector light fields leads to a Pancharatnam–Berry geometric phase that is related to the associated dynamical phase. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the dynamical phase across the interference pattern can be deciphered from the total phase, thereby leaving only the geometric phase. Our results constitute the first genuine interferometric phase measurements that yield the Pancharatnam–Berry geometric phase in Young’s two-beam interference setup.

Rajendra Bhandari