On-chip switchable radially and azimuthally polarized vortex beam generation.

Abstract

Cylindrical vector vortex (CVV) beams, complex light fields that exhibit a vector nature and carry quantized orbital angular momentum (OAM) states, have been widely investigated due to their rich applications. Current technologies to generate CVV beams using individual polarization and spatial phase manipulations suffer from bulky size and low configurability. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to generate CVV beams with a single integrated device based on a silicon nitride microring resonator and embedded top-gratings. The device allows the manipulation of both the polarization and OAM degrees of freedom of light, and enables the generation of both radially and azimuthally polarized CVV beams. In addition, we develop a method to fabricate the devices of shallow-etched top-gratings with only one-step etching. To the best of our knowledge, this novel method provides new capabilities to develop on-chip integrated devices with great ease and flexibility.