Tight focusing of azimuthally polarized optical vortex produced by subwavelength grating

Abstract

Focusing of an optical vortex with sectorial azimuthal polarization is numerically investigated. An effect of sector numbers on the results of focusing is estimated. It is shown that the focal spot produced by a beam with six sectors does not differ from the ideally azimuthally polarized optical vortex; a difference in the focal spot diameter does not exceed 0.001 of the wavelength. For a four-sectoral beam, the difference does not exceed 0.028 of the wavelength. We have investigated a four-Sector transmission Polarization Converter for a wavelength of 633 nm, that enables the conversion of a linearly polarized incident beam into a mixture of linearly and azimuthally polarized beams. It was experimentally shown that light propagated through the four-Sector transmission Polarization Converter and focused by Fresnel zone plate with a focal length of 532 nm produces focal spot with diameters 0.46 and 0.57 of wavelength.