Nonlinear polarization evolution of hybridly polarized beams by isotropic Kerr nonlinearity

Abstract

Theoretically, we propose an investigation of the vectorial light field interacting with the isotropic Kerr medium. We obtain the analytical expression of the focal field of the hybrid polarized beam based on the vectorial Rayleigh-Sommerfeld formulas under the paraxial condition. Then we numerically simulate the far-field vectorial self-diffraction behavior and nonlinear ellipse rotation of a hybrid polarized beam by isotropic Kerr nonlinearity. Experimentally, we observe the vectorial self-diffraction behavior of the femtosecond-pulsed hybridly polarized beam in carbon disulfide at 800 nm, which is in agreement with the theoretical predictions. Our results demonstrate that the self-diffraction intensity pattern and the distribution of state of polarization (SoP) of a hybridly polarized beam could be manipulated by tuning the magnitude of the isotropic optical nonlinearity, which may find interesting applications in nonlinear mechanism analysis, nonlinear characterization technique, and spin angular momentum (SAM) manipulation.