Quantifying phases in homogenous twisted birefringent medium

TL;DR

This paper investigates how uniform twisting in a birefringent optical medium affects the phase of polarized light, linking internal and external birefringence effects with geometric phase and orbital angular momentum analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis connecting the geometric phase with the twist-induced birefringence and orbital angular momentum in a homogenous medium.

Findings

Quantifies the geometric phase as a solid angle related to twist

Establishes a physical analogy with orbital angular momentum sphere

Links internal and external birefringence effects

Abstract

The internal birefringence of an optical medium develops the dynamical phase through natural rotation of incident polarized light. The uniform twist of the medium induces an external birefringence in the system.This can be visualized through the geometric phase by the solid angle in association with the angular twist per unit thickness of the medium $k$.An equivalent physical analysis in the $l=1$ orbital angular momentum sphere also has been pointed out.