S. Pancharatnam
Encyclopedia
Shivaramakrishnan Pancharatnam (1934-1969) was an Indian physicist who did significant work in the field of optics. He is noted for his discovery of a type of geometric phase
known as Pancharatnam phase for polarized beams passing through crystals.
He was born in Tiruchirapalli in South India in 1934. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy at the early age of 25. From 1964 until his death in 1969 at the age of 35 he was a Research Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, working in association with G. W. Series, F. R. S. His publications for this period were mainly concerned with the theory of effects found in experiments on optical pumping, e.g. double refraction in a gas due to spin alignment. Professor Series has written an introduction to the life and work of Pancharatnam. He also prepared, for the Proceedings of the Royal Society, the last three papers from notes left by Pancharatnam.
Pancharatnam's work has generated interest amongst optical engineers who are looking for practical applications of his discoveries. This has already been incorporated in the design of achromatic quarter and half-wave plates. Although another method has been used in the Zeiss version of the tuneable Lyot-Ohman filter, application for that due to Pancharatnam may still be found. He studied crystals for which the ellipsoid associated with the dichroism
(or absorption index) does not have the same axial directions as the ellipsoid associated with the real part of the refractive index. Some of the peculiar effects which he discovered theoretically and demonstrated experimentally, may well have applications. Knowledge of others may warn the inventor of devices depending on birefringence that, in many crystals, certain devices will not work.
Classic papers which brought out the concept of Anholonomy during parallel transport
of Polarization states of light long before Michael Berry came up with the idea thereby making it apt to call it as Pancharatnam - Berry Phase.
Geometric phase
In classical and quantum mechanics, the geometric phase, Pancharatnam–Berry phase , Pancharatnam phase or most commonly Berry phase, is a phase acquired over...
known as Pancharatnam phase for polarized beams passing through crystals.
He was born in Tiruchirapalli in South India in 1934. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy at the early age of 25. From 1964 until his death in 1969 at the age of 35 he was a Research Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, working in association with G. W. Series, F. R. S. His publications for this period were mainly concerned with the theory of effects found in experiments on optical pumping, e.g. double refraction in a gas due to spin alignment. Professor Series has written an introduction to the life and work of Pancharatnam. He also prepared, for the Proceedings of the Royal Society, the last three papers from notes left by Pancharatnam.
Pancharatnam's work has generated interest amongst optical engineers who are looking for practical applications of his discoveries. This has already been incorporated in the design of achromatic quarter and half-wave plates. Although another method has been used in the Zeiss version of the tuneable Lyot-Ohman filter, application for that due to Pancharatnam may still be found. He studied crystals for which the ellipsoid associated with the dichroism
Dichroism
Dichroism has two related but distinct meanings in optics. A dichroic material is either one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths , or one in which light rays having different polarizations are absorbed by different amounts.The original meaning of...
(or absorption index) does not have the same axial directions as the ellipsoid associated with the real part of the refractive index. Some of the peculiar effects which he discovered theoretically and demonstrated experimentally, may well have applications. Knowledge of others may warn the inventor of devices depending on birefringence that, in many crystals, certain devices will not work.
Classic papers which brought out the concept of Anholonomy during parallel transport
Parallel transport
In geometry, parallel transport is a way of transporting geometrical data along smooth curves in a manifold. If the manifold is equipped with an affine connection , then this connection allows one to transport vectors of the manifold along curves so that they stay parallel with respect to the...
of Polarization states of light long before Michael Berry came up with the idea thereby making it apt to call it as Pancharatnam - Berry Phase.