Abstract
Polarization gratings can be realized by polarization holographic recording in photoanisotropic materials. In this paper, we study two types of polarization gratings. One is recorded with two orthogonally circularly (OC) polarized beams and the other one with two orthogonally linearly (OL) polarized beams. The interference of both cases is explored beyond the small recording angle regime. A novel method is proposed to represent the polarization states of the modulation. The diffraction by polarization gratings is studied with rigorous diffraction theory. Simulations based on the Finite Element Method are performed for both OC and OL polarization gratings at small and large recording angles.
Highlights
Photoanisotropic polarization gratings are interesting optical components for many light controlling applications
We studied the photoanisotropic polarization gratings using rigorous diffraction calculation
When the recording angle between the two recording beams is large, the interference pattern of two orthogonally polarized beams consists of periodic modulations of polarization states and intensity with the electric field not remaining in one plane
Summary
Photoanisotropic polarization gratings are interesting optical components for many light controlling applications. Todorov and Nikolova [2, 19,20,21,22,23] have carried out extensive theoretical and experimental work on the recording and reading processes of polarization gratings They use the Jones Matrix method to study the diffraction from polarization gratings. Many other publications which are not listed here contain similar theoretical treatments as those mentioned above In all those papers only paraxial situations are studied, i.e. the recording angle of the two recording beams is small. The main task of this paper is to apply our in-house numerical code based on the finite element method (FEM) to study the diffraction of the photoanisotropic polarization gratings rigorously beyond the small recording angle regime. A brief description of the code is given in Section 3 together with the results and discussions
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