Open AccessOptics in Curved Space
Author(s) -
Vincent H. Schultheiss,
Sascha Batz,
Alexander Szameit,
Felix Dreisow,
Stefan Nolte,
Andreas Tünnermann,
Stefano Longhi,
Ulf Peschel
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
physical review letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.688
H-Index - 673
eISSN - 1079-7114
pISSN - 0031-9007
DOI - 10.1103/physrevlett.105.143901
Subject(s) - gaussian curvature , curvature , physics , optics , wavelength , space (punctuation) , gaussian beam , constant (computer programming) , interference (communication) , surface (topology) , gaussian , curved space , mean curvature , geometry , beam (structure) , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics , mathematics , linguistics , philosophy , channel (broadcasting) , electrical engineering , computer science , programming language , engineering
We experimentally study the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic curvature of space on the evolution of light. We show that the topology of a surface matters for radii of curvature comparable with the wavelength, whereas for macroscopically curved surfaces only intrinsic curvature is relevant. On a surface with constant positive Gaussian curvature we observe periodic refocusing, self-imaging, and diffractionless propagation. In contrast, light spreads exponentially on surfaces with constant negative Gaussian curvature. For the first time we realized two beam interference in negatively curved space