Paraxial propagation in disclinated amorphous media

TL;DR

This paper investigates how disclinations in amorphous media influence paraxial beam propagation, revealing effects like Berry phase, polarization precession, and optical spin Hall effect, with applications in measuring birefringence and Frank vector.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of disclinations on Berry phase and curvature in amorphous media, linking defect-induced inhomogeneity to optical phenomena.

Findings

Berry phase causes polarization precession

Optical spin Hall effect leads to sinusoidal beam deflection

Method to determine birefringence and Frank vector

Abstract

We study paraxial beam propagation along the wedge axis of a disclinated amorphous medium. The defect-induced inhomogeneity results in Berry phase and curvature that are affected by the induced uniaxial anisotropy. The Berry phase manifests itself as a precession of the polarization vector. The Berry curvature is responsible for the optical spin Hall effect in the disclinated medium, where beam deflection varies sinusoidally along the paraxial direction. Its application in determining the birefringence and the magnitude of the Frank vector is explained.