Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Physics and Astronomy

First Advisor

Mark Siemens, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Shannon Murphy, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Guillermo Quinter, Ph.D.

Fourth Advisor

Davor Balzar, Ph.D.

Fifth Advisor

Xin Fan, Ph.D.

Keywords

Orbital angular momentum, Quantum dot, Light Angular Momentum, Light-Matter Interaction

Abstract

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the transfer of orbital angular momentum from light to an ensemble of semiconductor-based nanostructures composed of lead sulfide quantum dots. Using an ensemble of quantum dots offers a higher cross-section and more absorption of twisted light fields compared to experimentally challenging single-nanostructure measurements. However, each quantum dot (except for on-center) sees a displaced light beam parallel to its own axis of symmetry. The transition matrix elements for the light-matter interaction are calculated by expressing the displaced light beam in terms of the appropriate light field centered on the nanoparticles. The resulting transition rate induced by light's orbital angular momentum depends on the nanostructure size, the displacement between the beam center and nanostructure axis, and the ratio of the nanostructure size to the beam waist. In addition, while the strength of the transitions induced by twisted light is much weaker than those induced by plane waves for the center case, they are almost identical when conceding illuminating an ensemble of nanostructures. Although we attempted to measure this transfer of orbital angular momentum, due to experimental limitations the transfer remained undetectable.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Alaa A. Bahamran

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

150 p.

Discipline

Materials Science, Condensed matter physics

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