Guilhem Poy (Author), Slobodan Žumer (Author)

Abstract

We propose an efficient method to simulate light propagation in lossless and non-scattering uniaxial birefringent media, based on a standard ray-tracing technique supplemented by a newly-derived transport equation for the electric field amplitude along a ray and a tailored interpolation algorithm for the reconstruction of the electromagnetic fields. We show that this algorithm is accurate in comparison to a full solution of Maxwell's equations when the permittivity tensor of the birefringent medium typically varies over a length much bigger than the wavelength. We demonstrate the usefulness of our code for soft matter by comparing experimental images of liquid crystal droplets with simulated bright-field optical micrographs, and conclude that our method is more general than the usual Jones method, which is only valid under polarised illumination conditions. We also point out other possible applications of our method, including liquid crystal based flat element design and diffraction pattern calculations for periodic liquid crystal samples.

Keywords

fizika mehke snovi;tekoči kristali;optika;dvolomnost;soft matter physics;liquid crystals;optics;birefringence;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization: UL FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
UDC: 535
COBISS: 32291367 Link will open in a new window
ISSN: 1744-683X
Views: 667
Downloads: 415
Average score: 0 (0 votes)
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Other data

Secondary language: Slovenian
Secondary keywords: fizika mehke snovi;tekoči kristali;optika;dvolomnost;
Pages: str. 3659-3670
Volume: ǂVol. ǂ15
Issue: ǂno. ǂ18
Chronology: 2019
DOI: 10.1039/c8sm02448k
ID: 11146705