Measurement and analysis of reversible transformations of vortex-free and singular light fields produced by PDLC cells

Abstract

In this work, we have firstly realized and investigated reversible transformations of vortex-free and singular optical complex landscapes appearing in a He-Ne laser beam transmitted through a PDLC cell, which is controlled by an applied DC voltage. Biaxes of all micro size LC domains are oriented approximately along the applied electric field, and vortex-free complex landscape exists at 200 V. At 160 V, biaxes orientation spreads, and the first ‘embryo’ of vortices in the form of a smooth phase step appears. The first vortex pair nucleates at 140 V. Multitude of vortex pairs is realized when electric field is switched off. Reversed evolution is realized when the applied DC voltage grows from zero value to 200 V. It was shown that the observed topological evolution is fully defined by changes in structure and localization of real and imaginary zero-intensity lines for output complex light field. The developed technique of parametric dynamics can be applied successfully to realize and investigate various types of controlled optical elements including media with nanoadditions.