Contents B Integrals of the matrix mode function 69 C Methods for OAM measurements 71 Bibliography 73 viii
Acknowledgements This thesis compiles the result of five years of work at icfo. But it is, in some sense, the result of a longer process that started many years ago in Medellín. I would like to show my gratitude to all the people that helped me during all this time even though I cannot mention everybody explicitly. I would like to thank my advisor Juan P. Torres for inviting me to his group, and for being very patient with my impatience. I am grateful to Alejandra Valencia and Xiaojuan Shi for their generous and unconditional support. I wish to thank all the people that provide a stimulating and fun environment in icfo, especially Maurizio Righini, Laura Grau, Carsten Schuck, Masood Ghotbi, Xavier Vidal, Sibylle Braungardt, Jorge Luis Domínguez-Juárez, Petru Ghenuche, Rafael Betancurt, Philipp Hauke, Alessandro Ferraro, Agata Checinska, and Martin Hendrych. I would like to thank Niek van Hulst and his group, for adopting me at lunch time and for all party matters; and Morgan Mitchell and his group, especially Marco Koschorreck, Mario Napolitano, Florian Wolfgramm, Alessandro Cere and Brice Dubost. Logistical support by Nuria Segù, Maria del Mar Gil, Anne Gstöttner, Jose Carlos Cifuentes, and the electronic workshop have also been most helpful. I am extremely grateful to Miguel Navascués that has been like a little brother to me since I came to Barcelona, and to Artur García that welcomed me in his office every time that I needed to talk (and that was very often). I want to thank my “Barcelonian” friends for their caring, their emotional and gastronomical support, Mauricio Álvarez, Carolina Mora, Friman Sánchez, Tania de la Paz, Maria Teresa Vasco and Jose Uribe. Regardless the distance, many of my friends made available their support in a number of ways, I am grateful to Carlos Molina, Jose Palacios, Catalina López, Elizabeth Agudelo, Esteban Silva, Sebastían Patrón, Jaime Hincapie, Wolfgang Niedenzu, Andrew Hilliard, Juan C. Muñoz (y familia), Jaime Forero and Javier Moreno. It is a pleasure to thank Boudewijn Taminiau, Ied van Oorschot, and all the Taminiau family, since their visits and hospitality have made this years much nicer. Agradezco hasta el cielo a mi familia. A mis papás que me han inspirado siempre con su creatividad y fortaleza para resolver los problemas, a mis hermanas que siempre me apoyan, y a mi hermanito Felipe, que me ha trasmitido todo su amor por la ciencia, su curiosidad y su escepticismo. Finally, this thesis would not have been possible without the constant support of Tim Taminiau, his careful corrections of this manuscript and the nice 3D images of the cone and the phase fronts that he made for me. I also thank Tim for giving me my first bicycle, for teaching me how to use it, and for pushing me up the mountain every day when we were going to work. ix
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