Measurements of phase distributions of optical vortices based on the sinusoidal phase modulation method

Abstract

Vortex beams (VBs), a type of light beam with a spiral wavefront, have unique properties, such as the orbit angular momentum (OAM), and diverse applications in optical communications and optical trapping and tweezers. Therefore, accurate measurements and estimations of the phase distribution and topological charge are essential for their applications to ensure VB quality. In this paper, we employed a sinusoidal phase modulation (SPM) interferometry to measure the phase distributions of VBs and the topological charge of VBs were estimated by mean of a method of the process of unwrapped phase. The phase measurement of optical vortices generated by a spatial light modulator (SLM) demonstrated that the SPM interferometry-based technique had a high measurement accuracy with a simplified configuration. The estimation errors of the topological charges for various orders of VBs were within approximately 4%. The fluctuation in the surface of the SLM leading to the flatness of the wavefront was estimated to be 0.06 rad by 10 consecutive measurements