Retrieval of Aerosol Optical Properties over the Beijing Area Using POLDER/PARASOL Satellite Polarization Measurements

Aerosol optical properties over Beijing and Xianghe under several typical weather conditions （clear sky, light haze, heavy pollution and dust storm） are derived from POLDER （POLarization and Directionality of the Earth＇s Reflectances）/PARASOL （Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar） multi-directional, multi-spectral polarized signals using a more reliable retrieval algorithm as proposed in this paper. The results are compared with those of the operational retrieval algorithm of POLDER/PARASOL group and the ground-based AERONET （AErosol RObotic NETwork）/PHOTONS （PHOtometrie pour le Traitement Operational de Normalisation Satellitaire） measurements. It is shown that the aerosol optical parameters derived from the improved algorithm agree well with AERONET/PHOTONS measurement. The retrieval accuracies of aerosol optical thickness （AOT） and effective radius are 0.06 and 0.05 μm respectively, which are close to or better than the required accuracies （0.04 for AOT and 0.1 μm for effective radius） for estimating aerosol direct forcing.

Degree of polarization based on the three-component pBRDF model for metallic materials

An expression of degree of polarization（DOP） for metallic material is presented based on the three-component polarized bidirectional reflectance distribution function（p BRDF） model with considering specular reflection, directional diffuse reflection and ideal diffuse reflection. The three-component p BRDF model with a detailed reflection assumption is validated by comparing simulations with measurements. The DOP expression presented in this paper is related to surface roughness, which makes it more reasonable in physics. Test results for two metallic samples show that the DOP based on the three-component p BRDF model accords well with the measurement and the error of existing DOP expression is significantly reduced by introducing the diffuse reflection. It indicates that our DOP expression describes the polarized reflection properties of metallic surfaces more accurately.

High-reflectivity high-contrast grating focusing reflector on silicon-on-insulator wafer

A high-contrast grating（HCG） focusing reflector providing phase front control of reflected light and high reflectivity is proposed and fabricated.Basic design rules to engineer this category of structures are given in detail.A 1550 nm TM polarized incident light of 11.86 mm in focal length and 0.8320 in reflectivity is obtained in experiment.The wavelength dependence of the fabricated HCGs from 1530 nm to 1580 nm is also tested.The test results show that the focal length is in the range of 11.81-12 mm,which is close to the designed focal length of 15 mm.The reflectivity is almost above 0.56 within a bandwidth of 50 nm.At a distance of 11.86 mm,the light is focused to a round spot with the highest concentration,which is much smaller than the size of the incident beam.The FWHM of the reflected light beam decreases to 120 nm,and the intensity increases to 1.18.

Enhancement of subgap conductance in a graphene superconductor junction by valley polarization

We theoretically study the differential conductance of a graphene/graphene superconductor junction, where the valley polarization of Dirac electrons is considered in the nonsuperconducting region. It is shown that the subgap conductance will increase monotonically with the valley-polarization strength when the chemical potential μ is near the Dirac point μ≤ 3？（？ is the superconducting gap）, whereas it will decrease monotonically when μ is far away from the Dirac point, μ≥ 5？.The former case is induced by the specular Andreev reflection while the retro-reflection accounts for the later result. Our findings may shed light on the control of conductance of a graphene superconductor junction by valley polarization.

Observation of tiny polarization rotation rate in total internal reflection via weak measurements

In this paper,we examine the tiny polarization rotation effect in total internal reflection due to the spin–orbit interaction of light.We find that the tiny polarization rotation rate will induce a geometric phase gradient,which can be regarded as the physical origin of photonic spin Hall effect.We demonstrate that the spin-dependent splitting in position space is related to the polarization rotation in momentum space,while the spin-dependent splitting in momentum space is attributed to the polarization rotation in position space.Furthermore,we introduce a quantum weak measurement to determine the tiny polarization rotation rate.The rotation rate in momentum space is obtained with 118 nm,which manifests itself as a spatial shift,and the rotation rate in position space is achieved with 38 μrad∕λ,which manifests itself as an angular shift.The investigation of the polarization rotation characteristics will provide insights into the photonic spin Hall effect and will enable us to better understand the spin–orbit interaction of light.