Broadband adiabatic conversion of light polarization

Abstract

A broadband technique for robust adiabatic rotation and conversion of light polarization is proposed. It uses the analogy between the equation describing the polarization state of light propagating through an optically anisotropic medium and the Schrodinger equation describing coherent laser excitation of a three-state atom. The proposed techniques is analogous to the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) technique in quantum optics; it is applicable to a wide range of frequencies and it is robust to variations in the ropagation length.