Precision Optical Measurements

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This project, in progress, uses the concept of "quantum weak-measurements in pre- and post-selected ensembles" as a measurement tool to amplify the value of a small signal to be measured. The amplification effect was shown previously in an optical experiment; however, the technique was never used to measure an otherwise uncharacterized effect. We are investigating the recently proposed "spin Hall effect" of light, in which oppositely circularly polarized light beams experience opposite transverse spatial shifts when passing through an air-glass interface. Experimentally, characterizing this effect requires a spatial resolution of ~lambda/100, where lambda is the wavelength of the light. We are currently constructing the weak-measurement amplification setup, which should achieve resolutions on the order of 1 nm.