Direct measurement of the relative Fresnel (Goos-Hänchen) phase by polarization tomography

In this work, we measure the relative Fresnel (Goos-Hänchen) phase, which is acquired after beam propagation through a two-phase ellipsometric system under total internal reflection, by using polarization tomography. This approach presents a direct measurement which provides a more powerful and complete description of the polarization state. In this sense, the relative phase can be obtained through the polarization-state reconstruction. The experimental data confirm the simulated intensity profiles and allow us to access information about the amplitude and relative phase of the polarization state instead of measuring phase effects.

Figure 1

Physical system. In (a), the planar view of the BK7 block shows the geometrical system in which $\theta$ is the angle of incidence, $\psi$ is the angle of the refracted beam, and $\phi$ is the angle of incidence at the down dielectric-air interface. In (b), the free incoming beam is mixed by the polarizer ($P_{\pi /4}$) located before the dielectric structure. Here, three incidence-angle values of $4^{\circ }$, ${20}^{\circ }$, and ${45}^{\circ }$ are employed to increase the number of reflection $N_{\mathrm{ref}}$ and the acquired F(GH) phase. After state preparation, the elliptical polarized light goes to the quantum tomography system in (c) composed of a quarter-wave plate (QWP), a half-wave plate (HWP), and a polarized beam splitter (PBS).

Figure 2

Simulated output hot-color images for the optical tomography circuit.

Figure 3

Experimental output hot-color images for the optical tomography circuit.