Optical Vortices from Liquid Crystal Droplets
Open accessAbstract
We report on the generation of mono- and polychromatic optical phase singularities from micron-sized birefringent droplets. This is done experimentally by using liquid crystal droplets whose three dimensional architecture of the optical axis is controlled within the bulk by surfactant agents. Because of its microscopic size these optical vortex generators are optically trapped and manipulated at will, thus realizing a robust self-aligned micro-optical device for orbital angular momentum conversion. Experimental observations are supported by a simple model of optical spin-orbit coupling in uniaxial dielectrics that emphasizes the prominent role of the transverse optical anisotropy with respect to the beam propagation direction.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In all systems studied, the incident light propagated along the transverse y-axis carrying usual SAM depending on its helicity: Sy inc ∝ σ.
“Indeed, in all systems 4 5 -5 2,125-1 28 the incident light propagated along the transverse y -axis carrying usual SAM depending on its helicity: S y inc ∝σ .”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [51]
The paper’s discussion of circularly polarized incident light and spin-angular-momentum flipping supports the helicity-dependent SAM part of the claim. But its model describes beam propagation along the z-axis, not the y-axis, and the paper does not establish the statement for “all systems.” The relevant passages are labeled Abstract in our copy; no page number is available. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredCoupling transversely-propagating spinning light to evanescent tails of surface or waveguide modes results in robust spin-controlled unidirectional propagation of those modes.
“(iv) Any surface or waveguide mode possesses evanescent tails. Strikingly, coupling transversely-propagating spinning light to these evanescent tails results in a robust spincontrolled unidirectional propagation of the surface or waveguide modes 45- 52 .”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [51]
The paper’s Abstract describes optical vortex generation by liquid-crystal droplets and spin–orbit coupling, not coupling to evanescent tails. Searches for evanescent tails, surface or waveguide modes, and spin-controlled directional propagation found no passage addressing the claimed unidirectional propagation. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSeveral experiments and numerical simulations demonstrated remarkable spin-controlled unidirectional coupling between circularly-polarized incident light and transversely-propagating surface or waveguide modes.
“Recently, several experiments and numerical simulations demonstrated remarkable spin-controlled unidirectional coupling between circularly-polarized incident light and transversely-propagating surface or waveguide modes 4 5 -5 2,125-1 28 , see Figs. 4b,c.”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [51]
The supplied passages and searches for unidirectional coupling and transversely propagating modes describe spin-dependent optical vortex generation in liquid-crystal droplets (section labeled Abstract; page unavailable). They do not address coupling into surface or waveguide modes, so our copy cannot verify the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe spin-controlled unidirectional coupling effect is very robust to the details of the system and equally appears with near 100%-efficiency at metal surfaces, nanofibers, and various waveguides.
“Moreover, the effect is very robust to the details of the system and equally appears with near 100%-efficiency at metal surfaces 46,47,49 , nanofibers 48,50,126 , and various waveguides 51,52,125,127,128 .”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [51]
The paper’s Abstract and discussion of Fig. 5 (page unavailable in our copy) concern optical-vortex generation by liquid-crystal droplets; the reported conversion efficiency varies with droplet diameter. Searches for unidirectional coupling, near-100% efficiency, metal surfaces, nanofibers, and waveguides found no passage addressing the attributed effect. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 27 · Cited by 269
Research works printed but not linked: 26
- M. Berry, Nature (London) 403, 21 (2000).
- J. F. Nye and M. V. Berry, Proc. R. Soc. A 336, 165 (1974).
- J. Arlt, J. Mod. Opt. 50, 1573 (2003).
- L. Allen et al., Phys. Rev. A 45, 8185 (1992).
- H. He et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 826 (1995).
- K. T. Gahagan and G. A. Swartzlander, Opt. Lett. 21, 827 (1996).
- N. B. Simpson et al., Opt. Lett. 22, 52 (1997).
- S. W. Hell, Nat. Biotechnol. 21, 1347 (2003).
- A. Jesacher et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 233902 (2005).
- G. Molina-Terriza et al., Nature Phys. 3, 305 (2007).
- G. Foo et al., Opt. Lett. 30, 3308 (2005).
- J. Courtial et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3217 (1998).
- A. G. Peele et al., Opt. Lett. 27, 1752 (2002).
- M. Beijersbergen et al., Opt. Commun. 112, 321 (1994).
- N. R. Heckenberg et al., Opt. Lett. 17, 221 (1992).
- A. Volyar and T. Fadeyeva, Opt. Spectrosc. 94, 235 (2003).
- A. Ciattoni et al., Phys. Rev. E 67, 036618 (2003).
- G. Biener et al., Opt. Lett. 27, 1875 (2002).
- H. Ren et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 051114 (2006).
- L. Marrucci et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 163905 (2006).
- S. C. McEldowney et al., Opt. Lett. 33, 134 (2008).
- G. Kno ¨ner et al., Opt. Express 15, 5521 (2007).
- H. I. Sztul and R. R. Alfano, Opt. Lett. 31, 999 (2006).
- M. S. Soskin et al., Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 5458, 79 (2004).
- E. Brasselet et al., Opt. Lett. 34, 1021 (2009).
- M. Stalder and M. Schadt, Opt. Lett. 21, 1948 (1996).
- Authors
- Brasselet, E., Murazawa, N., Misawa, H., & Juodkazis, S.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2009-09-02
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 103903-103903
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W1996157677
- Cited by
- 269
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 7.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers (Hokkaido University) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Oskar-Bordeaux (Universite de Bordeaux) (submittedVersion)
- Swinburne figshare (Swinburne University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Swinburne figshare (Swinburne University of Technology)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Liquid Crystal Research Advancements
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Keywords
- optical vortices, phase singularities, liquid crystal droplets, optical trapping, orbital angular momentum, spin-orbit coupling, micro-optical components
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
