Abstract
We develop a method for generating focused vector beams with circular polarization at any transverse plane. Based on the Richards-Wolf vector model, we derive analytical expressions to describe the propagation of these set of beams near the focal area. Since the polarization and the amplitude of the input beam are not uniform, an interferometric system capable of generating spatially-variant polarized beams has to be used. In particular, this wavefront is manipulated by means of spatial light modulators displaying computer generated holograms and subsequently focused using a high numerical aperture objective lens. Experimental results using a NA = 0.85 system are provided: irradiance and Stokes images of the focused field at different planes near the focal plane are presented and compared with those obtained by numerical simulation.
Highlights
The propagation of electromagnetic field distributions generated at the focal region has been extensively investigated in the last years [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
We develop a method for generating focused vector beams with circular polarization at any transverse plane
Since the polarization and the amplitude of the input beam are not uniform, an interferometric system capable of generating spatially-variant polarized beams has to be used. This wavefront is manipulated by means of spatial light modulators displaying computer generated holograms and subsequently focused using a high numerical aperture objective lens
Summary
The propagation of electromagnetic field distributions generated at the focal region has been extensively investigated in the last years [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Full control of the complex amplitude and polarization distributions of the paraxial input field is required to generate focused fields adapted to the requirements of a specific problem [10]. Light shaping can be accomplished by using an optical setup able to generate beams with arbitrary polarization and shape distributions at a given plane. This is usually carried out by means of interferometric systems in combination with spatial light modulators and digital holography [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. Circularly polarized tight focused beams are useful in resolution improvement [22,23,24], third harmonic generation-based microscopy [25,26,27], plasmonics and nano-optics applications [28, 29], optical activity and chemical related problems [30, 31] or, conical refraction [32]
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