Spontaneous Emission of Vector Vortex Beams

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to generate vector vortex beams from spontaneous emission of quantum dots by using holographic nanostructures, enabling complex light forms without laser coherence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to produce vector beams from incoherent emitters using nanostructures to impart coherence and polarization.

Findings

Successful generation of vector vortex beams from quantum dots

Holographic nanostructures induce spatial coherence and polarization

Potential extension to other vectorial light forms

Abstract

Harnessing the spontaneous emission of incoherent quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of nano-optics. Yet, an enduring challenge remains-making them emit vector beams, which are complex forms of light associated with fruitful developments in fluorescence imaging, optical trapping and high-speed telecommunications. Vector beams are characterized by spatially varying polarization states whose construction requires coherence properties that are typically possessed by lasers-but not by photons produced by spontaneous emission. Here, we show a route to weave the spontaneous emission of an ensemble of colloidal quantum dots into vector beams. To this end, we use holographic nanostructures that impart the necessary spatial coherence, polarization and topological properties to the light originating from the emitters. We focus our demonstration on vector vortex beams, which are chiral vector beams carrying non-zero orbital angular momentum, and argue that our approach can be extended to other forms of vectorial light.