Generation of diffraction-free petallike beams based on stationary phase principle

Abstract

Lately, a kind of so-called “combined half-integer Bessel-like beams,” in which their subfamilies include radial carpet, petallike, and ringlike vortex beams, has been generated using a radial periodic grating. Different from classical petallike beams, we introduce and generate a kind of new petallike beams, that is, diffraction-free petallike beams (DFPBs). Their diffraction pattern is independent of the propagation distance. Firstly, the generating mechanism of diffraction-free petallike beams is theoretically investigated based on the stationary phase principle. Then, we theoretically construct a family of patterns of DFPBs. Subsequently, the DFPBs is generated by using an amplitude radial grating with a sinusoidal transmission function and two phase modulation elements — phase plate and axicon. Experimental results well confirm the theoretical predictions, thereby showing that the stationary phase principle is an effective approach to generating various diffraction-free combined half-integer Bessel-like beams based on radial grating, including diffraction-free radial carpet, petallike, and ringlike vortex beams.