Abstract
The Gouy phase, sometimes called the focal phase anomaly, is the curious effect that in the vicinity of its focus a diffracted field, compared to a non-diffracted, converging spherical wave of the same frequency, undergoes a rapid phase change by an amount of π. We theoretically investigate the phase behavior and the polarization ellipse of a strongly focused, radially polarized beam. We find that the significant variation of the state of polarization in the focal region, is a manifestation of the different Gouy phases that the two electric field components undergo.
Highlights
The phase anomaly is a measure of how the phase of a monochromatic, focused wave field differs from that of a non-diffracted, converging spherical wave of the same frequency
We theoretically investigate the phase behavior and the polarization ellipse of a strongly focused, radially polarized beam
We find that the significant variation of the state of polarization in the focal region, is a manifestation of the different Gouy phases that the two electric field components undergo
Summary
The phase anomaly is a measure of how the phase of a monochromatic, focused wave field differs from that of a non-diffracted, converging spherical wave of the same frequency. It was found that the Gouy phases of the three Cartesian components of the electric field exhibit quite different behaviors Another example which requires a vectorial description is the focusing of radially polarized beams [12, 13]. A first indication of the complicated phase behavior of focused, radially polarized beams was the observation that their wave spacing near focus is highly irregular [21]. This was followed by a study of the Gouy phase of the longitudinal component of the electric field vector at the focal plane [22]. The Gouy phase of the total electric field vector, consisting of a radial and longitudinal component, is examined in the entire focal region.
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