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Space-time nonseparable pulses: Constructing isodiffracting donut pulses from plane waves and single-cycle pulses

Space-time nonseparable pulses: Constructing isodiffracting donut pulses from plane waves and single-cycle pulses
Space-time nonseparable pulses: Constructing isodiffracting donut pulses from plane waves and single-cycle pulses
Maxwell's equations can be satisfied not only by plane electromagnetic waves, but also by more exotic space-time nonseparable electromagnetic pulses which cannot be represented as a product of time- and space-dependent functions. A family of such pulses with finite energy was identified by Ziolkowski [Phys. Rev. A 39, 2005 (1989)]. Later, Hellwarth and Nouchi [Phys. Rev. E 54, 889 (1996)] highlighted a subset of Ziolkowski's pulses, now known as flying donuts, a formation of polarization singularities of toroidal topology traveling at the speed of light. Spurred by recent advances in ultrafast and topological optics, space-time nonseparable electromagnetic excitations are now becoming the focus of growing experimental efforts as they hold promise for topological information transfer, probing and inducing transient excitations in matter such as anapole and toroidal modes. Here we demonstrate that the flying donut can be constructed from an ensemble of monochromatic plane waves with continuous spatial and frequency spectrum and hence can be generated by converting broadband conventional transverse electromagnetic pulses.
2469-9926
Zdagkas, Apostolos
af3bc86e-b049-4ea1-b7bb-44e2ee0a4441
Papasimakis, Nikitas
f416bfa9-544c-4a3e-8a2d-bc1c11133a51
Savinov, Vassili
147c7954-4636-4438-a305-cd78539f7c0a
Zheludev, Nikolai
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Zdagkas, Apostolos
af3bc86e-b049-4ea1-b7bb-44e2ee0a4441
Papasimakis, Nikitas
f416bfa9-544c-4a3e-8a2d-bc1c11133a51
Savinov, Vassili
147c7954-4636-4438-a305-cd78539f7c0a
Zheludev, Nikolai
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6

Zdagkas, Apostolos, Papasimakis, Nikitas, Savinov, Vassili and Zheludev, Nikolai (2020) Space-time nonseparable pulses: Constructing isodiffracting donut pulses from plane waves and single-cycle pulses. Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, 102 (6), [063512]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.102.063512).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Maxwell's equations can be satisfied not only by plane electromagnetic waves, but also by more exotic space-time nonseparable electromagnetic pulses which cannot be represented as a product of time- and space-dependent functions. A family of such pulses with finite energy was identified by Ziolkowski [Phys. Rev. A 39, 2005 (1989)]. Later, Hellwarth and Nouchi [Phys. Rev. E 54, 889 (1996)] highlighted a subset of Ziolkowski's pulses, now known as flying donuts, a formation of polarization singularities of toroidal topology traveling at the speed of light. Spurred by recent advances in ultrafast and topological optics, space-time nonseparable electromagnetic excitations are now becoming the focus of growing experimental efforts as they hold promise for topological information transfer, probing and inducing transient excitations in matter such as anapole and toroidal modes. Here we demonstrate that the flying donut can be constructed from an ensemble of monochromatic plane waves with continuous spatial and frequency spectrum and hence can be generated by converting broadband conventional transverse electromagnetic pulses.

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FD_plane_wave - Accepted Manuscript
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Space-time nonseparable pulses: Constructing isodiffracting donut pulses from plane waves and single-cycle pulses - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 6 November 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 December 2020
Published date: 8 December 2020

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 446002
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/446002
ISSN: 2469-9926
PURE UUID: dbd3db58-be98-4691-8ddb-cd02a0243af1
ORCID for Apostolos Zdagkas: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1734-9722
ORCID for Nikitas Papasimakis: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6347-6466
ORCID for Vassili Savinov: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7203-7222
ORCID for Nikolai Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

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Date deposited: 18 Jan 2021 17:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:19

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Contributors

Author: Apostolos Zdagkas ORCID iD
Author: Vassili Savinov ORCID iD

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