Spatiotemporal Optical Vortex Phenomena

Date of Award

8-1-2024

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Electro-Optics

Department

Department of Electro-Optics and Photonics

Advisor/Chair

Imad Agha

Abstract

Spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs) are phase singularities that are temporally localized inside a wavepacket. Compared to optical vortices (OVs) inside monochromatic light beams propagating through space, the fourth dimension of time with STOVs enables unique propagation phenomena. When spatiotemporal tilted vortices are embedded in light with partial temporal coherence, random time-dependent tilt appears, although the average tilt angle does not change. When a STOV and an OV are combined in the same wavepacket, vortex reconnections occur dynamically with propagation. Reconnections between closed-loop spatiotemporal optical vortices can be modeled using conical dislocations in the frequency domain. Knotted spatiotemporal optical vortices unknot with propagation. Finally, STOVs and tilted STOVs precess with propagation under cylindrical focusing. This precession with propagation of a single vortex turns out to be a dynamic two-vortex reconnection when viewed from the full 3D propagation volume advancing over time-slices of the wavepacket.

Keywords

Spatiotemporal optics; STOVs; Reconnections; Vortices; Orbital Angular Momentum of Light;

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2024, author.

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