Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Physics (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Physics
Advisor 1
Miguel Levy
Committee Member 1
Durdu Guney
Committee Member 2
Ramy El-Ganainy
Committee Member 3
Jae Yong Suh
Abstract
This dissertation explores the interactions and applications of optical angular momentum within magneto-optical materials. Beginning with a theoretical and experimental analysis of multiple reflection and refraction phenomena within magneto-optical material. We derive and verify the dependence of refractive indices on optical spin angular momentum and magneto-optical magnetization, resulting in nonreciprocal elliptical and linear polarization beam splitting effects and wavevector discretization. We fabricate a magnetless slab waveguide isolator with minimal optical loss. Extending our study to optical orbital angular momentum, we introduce a perturbation to the electronic transition model in bismuth-substituted iron garnets. We demonstrate that this perturbation leads to nonreciprocal modification of the orbital angular momentum state-specific refractive index and reduction of Faraday rotation. This is experimentally verified using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. As a culmination of the results, we leverage the orbital angular momentum state-specific Faraday rotation reduction to create a magneto-optical-based orbital angular momentum state selection algorithm. This orbital angular momentum state selection and modulation algorithm has the same scaling as Grover's algorithm, presenting a scalable, high-accuracy probabilistic computing architecture.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Seth R., "INTERACTIONS AND APPLICATIONS OF OPTICAL ANGULAR MOMENTUM IN MAGNETO-OPTICAL MATERIAL", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2025.
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Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Commons, Engineering Physics Commons, Optics Commons, Quantum Physics Commons