Experimental measurement of the geometric phase of non-geodesic circles

We present and implement a method for the experimen-tal measurement of geometric phase of non-geodesic (small) circles on any SU(2) parameter space. This phase is meas-ured by subtracting the dynamic phase contribution from the total phase accumulated. Our design does not require theoretical anticipation of this dynamic phase value and the methods are generally applicable to any system accessible to interferometric and projection measurements. Experimen-tal implementations are presented for two settings: (1) the sphere of modes of orbital angular momentum, and (2) the Poincare sphere of polarizations of Gaussian beams.(c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

We propose and demonstrate a method for experimentally measuring the geometric phase of non-geodesic circles on any SU(2) parameter space. This phase is determined by subtracting the dynamic phase contribution from the total accumulated phase. Our approach does not require prior knowledge of the dynamic phase and can be applied to systems accessible to interferometric and projection measurements. Experimental implementations are presented for two specific cases: orbital angular momentum modes and polarization states of Gaussian beams.