Publications

Control of polarization rotation in nonlinear propagation of fully-structured light

Gibson Christopher J., Bevington Patrick, Oppo Gian-Luca, Yao Alison M.

Physical Review A Vol 97, (2018)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.033832

Chirality and the angular momentum of light

Cameron Robert P., Goette Jörg B., Barnett Stephen M., Yao Alison M.

Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences Vol 375, (2017)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0433

Polarization shaping for control of nonlinear propagation

Bouchard Frederic, Larocque Hugo, Yao Alison M., Travis Christopher, De Leon Israel, Rubano Andrea, Karimi Ebrahim, Oppo Gian-Luca, Boyd Robert W.

Physical Review Letters Vol 117, (2016)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.233903

On the natures of the spin and orbital parts of optical angular momentum

Barnett Stephen M, Allen L, Cameron Robert P, Gilson Claire R, Padgett Miles J, Speirits Fiona C, Yao Alison M

Journal of Optics (United Kingdom) Vol 18, (2016)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2040-8978/18/6/064004

Optical rogue waves in vortex turbulence

Gibson Christopher, Yao Alison, Oppo Gian-Luca

Physical Review Letters Vol 116, (2016)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.043903

Entropic uncertainty minimum for angle and angular momentum

Yao Alison, Brougham Thomas, Eleftheriadou Electra, Padgett Miles J., Barnett Steve

Journal of Optics (United Kingdom) Vol 16, (2014)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2040-8978/16/10/105404

more publications

Teaching

I am the 1st year Adviser of Studies for Physics.

I currently teach the electromagnetism part of the 3rd year course PH352: Quantum Physics and Electromagnetism. I also help tutor for the 1st year courses PH151: Mechanics, Waves and Optics and PH152: Quantum Physics and Electromagnetism.

Research interests

Projects

Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Hill, Lewis

Oppo, Gian-Luca (Principal Investigator) Yao, Alison (Co-investigator) Hill, Lewis (Research Co-investigator)

Period 01-Oct-2017 - 01-Oct-2020

Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Rooney, Liam Campbell

Yao, Alison (Principal Investigator) Cameron, Robert (Co-investigator) Rooney, Liam Campbell (Research Co-investigator)

Period 01-Oct-2017 - 01-Apr-2021

Control and Applications of Structured Light and Chiral Molecules | Rooney, Liam Campbell

Yao, Alison (Principal Investigator) Cameron, Robert (Co-investigator) Rooney, Liam Campbell (Research Co-investigator)

Period 01-Oct-2017 - 01-Apr-2021

Control and Applications of Structured Light and Chiral Molecules

Yao, Alison (Principal Investigator)

Period 01-Jun-2017 - 31-May-2020

ORANGUTRAN - ORbital ANGUlar momentum TRANsmissometer with zero collection angle error

McKee, David (Principal Investigator) Griffin, Paul (Co-investigator) Yao, Alison (Co-investigator)

"Light passing through natural water systems experiences both absorption and scattering leading to important effects such as heating of the water, growth of plants through photosynthesis and generation of reflectance signals for remote sensing systems. One of the most common measures of the optical properties of a water body is the beam attenuation coefficient which is the sum of absorption and scattering. This is usually measured by recording the intensity of a beam of light after it has passed through a known length of water and comparing the signal with that obtained either in air or, more usually, in ultrapure water. It is usually assumed that any photons either absorbed or scattered do not make it to the detector and so the remaining signal is due entirely to directly transmitted photons. However, in reality, light is scattered in water in such a way that standard transmissometers accidentally collect a large and quite variable amount of forward scattered light. This means that the signal they generate has a large error that is actually a feature of the instrument design, and sensors with different optical layouts will provide substantially different values. It has long been thought that this was an inevitable feature of the measurement and most users simply ignore the problem. Indeed, current NASA measurement protocols for this parameter explicitly leave it to the end user of data to work out how to deal with this problem. This is an intolerable position for which we have recently found a new solution.

We are planning to build a new device to measure beam attenuation that exploits a recently developed understanding of a quantum property of photons called orbital angular momentum, OAM. We can control this quantum state of light and generate a beam of light with a defined OAM state. When such a beam of light experiences a scattering event, the OAM state changes by a defined, quantum amount that we can easily identify. We can use this change of quantum state to effectively label scattered photons and discriminate them from directly transmitted photons. This means we can measure the number of photons that make it across a volume of water without being absorbed or scattered, without being affected by the scattering collection error that causes problems for current instruments. Our device will then be significantly more accurate than what is currently available and will help researchers and other end-users make significantly better and consistent measurements of what is an extremely important optical property of natural water systems."

Period 30-Jun-2016 - 29-Jun-2017

Collective effects and optomechanics in ultra-cold matter (ColOpt) (H2020 MCSA ETN)

Ackemann, Thorsten (Principal Investigator) Griffin, Paul (Co-investigator) Oppo, Gian-Luca (Co-investigator) Robb, Gordon (Co-investigator) Yao, Alison (Co-investigator)

Period 01-Jan-2017 - 31-Dec-2020

more projects

Address

Physics
John Anderson Building

John Anderson Building

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