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Photon-spin control of laser light with intra-cavity geometric phase metasurfaces


  Ronen Chriki*[1]  ,  Elhanan Maguid[2]  ,  Chene Tradonsky[1]   ,  Vladimir Kleiner[2]  ,  Asher A. Friesem[1]  ,  Nir Davidson[1]  ,  Erez Hasman[2]  
 [1] Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Rehovot 76100, Israel
[2] Micro and Nanooptics Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion– Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.

The field of nano-optics has continuously provided innovations and great progress in the ability to control light-matter interactions and achieve light manipulation. One method to achieve such control is based on the well-known geometric phase metasurface (GPM) elements, which enable photon spin dependent control of laser light [1–4]. Here we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, that GPM elements can be used inside laser cavities to control the properties of the laser output light. The control is achieved by placing a GPM element as an output coupler of a modified degenerate cavity laser, that has unique properties and advantages [5–7]. Using several different intra-cavity GPM elements, we demonstrated that we can obtain spin-controlled coherent and partially coherent vortex laser output beams, and radially and azimuthally polarized laser output beams. We believe the use of intra-cavity GPM elements has the potential of significantly improving existing laser applications, and enabling new applications that were hitherto not possible. Details of our experimental arrangement and results will be presented.

 

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[3]      D. Veksler, E. Maguid, N. Shitrit, D. Ozeri, V. Kleiner, and E. Hasman, ACS Photonics 2, 150422140239007 (2015).

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[7]      R. Chriki, M. Nixon, V. Pal, C. Tradonsky, G. Barach, A. a. Friesem, and N. Davidson, Opt. Express 23, 12989 (2015).