We investigate the polarization properties of holographic gratings in side-chain azobenzene polyesters in which an anisotropic grating that is due to photoinduced linear and circular birefringence is recorded in the volume of the material and a relief grating appears on the surface. A theoretical model is proposed to explain the experimental results, making it possible to understand the influen...

We study the effect of polarization and aperture geometry on the focal spot size of a high numerical aperture (NA) aplanatic lens. We show that for a clear aperture geometry, illuminating the lens by linear or circular polarization is preferable over radial polarization for spot size reduction applications. For annular aperture and objective lenses of 0.85 NA and above we give the sizes of the ...

The 3×1 generalized Jones vectors (GJVs) [E(x) E(y) E(z)](t) (t indicates the transpose) that describe the linear, circular, and elliptical polarization states of an arbitrary three-dimensional (3-D) monochromatic light field are determined in terms of the geometrical parameters of the 3-D vibration of the time-harmonic electric field. In three dimensions, there are as many distinct linear pola...

The light reflected from the metallic-shiny regions of the cuticle of certain beetles belonging to the Scarabaeoidea is known since 1911 to be left-handed circularly polarized. Only photographs of a few selected species of scarabs, taken through left- and right-circular polarizers, have earlier been published. Through a right-circular polarizer these beetles appear more or less dark. This demon...

Refraction and polarization transfer in an ultrarelativistic highly magnetized pulsar plasma are considered. Normal waves in the pulsar plasma are linearly polarized however circular polarization arises in the polarization limiting region if radiation propagates at an angle to the plane of the magnetic field lines. The rays go off this plane due to refraction or (and) due to rotation of the mag...

Through polarization observations H 2 O masers are excellent probes of magnetic fields in the maser region. Magnetic field strengths, such as those in the H 2 O masers regions of the envelopes of late-type stars and star-forming regions, are typically determined using a direct relation between the field strength and the observed circular polarization. Here it is shown that velocity and magnetic...

Influence of chirality on the optical second harmonic generated from planar array of G-shaped metamaterials is studied. Circular dichroism of these nanostructures manifests itself via different efficiency of left and right circularly polarized second harmonic that is observed for the samples of different handedness. This difference allows to distinguish between the two enantiomers.

Employing a novel polarization-resolved detection, we precisely measured the polarization of terahertz emission from ionized gases in two-color field composed of circular polarized fundamental beam and linear polarized second harmonic. It shows that the polarization of the THz emission rotates with the phase delay and forms an attoclock. The polarization angular deviations of THz emissions in d...

ProÐle comparison of the Stokes parameters V and I is a powerful tool for maser data analysis, which provides the Ðrst direct methods for unambiguous determination of (1) the maser saturation stage, (2) the ampliÐcation optical depth and intrinsic Doppler width of unsaturated masers, and (3) the comparative magnitudes of Zeeman splitting and Doppler line width. Circular polarization recently de...

Circular polarization spectroscopy has proven to be an indispensable tool in photosynthesis research and (bio)-molecular research in general. Oxygenic photosystems typically display an asymmetric Cotton effect around the chlorophyll absorbance maximum with a signal ≤ 1%. In vegetation, these signals are the direct result of the chirality of the supramolecular aggregates. The circular polarizati...