J. Eur. Opt. Society-Rapid Publ. 22, 47( 2026) 469
pulse of which the polarization evolution is strongly influenced by the path length L. Two regimes can be distinguished. When L is just several wavelenghts, the main effect of the dispersive medium is a delay between the two 20 fs pulses. In that case, the path on the Poincaré sphere, which connects an x-polarized state to a y-polarized state, has an orientation that is governed by the particular value of L. It was found that it is possible to reach any point on the Poincaré sphere in this manner. When L is on the order of 10,000 wavelengths, a time-delay for E x( t) hasto be introduced in order for the pulses to overlap. Also, E y( t) becomessignificantly stretched. This results in a much more complex polarization evolution of the output pulse.
One possible application of polarization-modulated pulses may be the investigation of structural changes in pump-probe experiments.
Funding
This work was supported by the Dutch Research Council( NWO), project P19-13, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China( grant W2441005).
Conflicts of interest The authors have nothing to disclose.
Data availability statement
No data were generated in the study. Visualizations 1 and 2 are available at https:// doi. org / 10.6084 / m9. figshare. 29828546 and https:// doi. org / 10.6084 / m9. figshare. 30052795.
Author contribution statement
Conceptualization: T. D. V. and A. T. F.; Methodology: J. X., T. D. V. and A. T. F.; Software: J. X. and T. D. V.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation: J. X. and T. D. V.; Writing – Review & Editing: J. X., T. D. V. and A. T. F.; Project administration: T. D. V.; Funding acquisition: T. D. V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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