Generation Of Vector Beams Research Articles

Generation of arbitrary vector beams based on a single spatial light modulator and a thin-film polarization splitting cubic

A setup for the generation of arbitrary vector beams is proposed. The setup mainly consists of a spatial light modulator (SLM), an angle-adjustable polarization beam splitter modulator, and a spatial filtering imaging system. Compared with the system using a birefringent beam splitter with a non-adjustable splitting angle, the polarization splitting angle of the improved setup can be adjusted by slightly rotating the related mirrors, which will bring more convenience when different wavelengths and different pixel sizes of SLMs are involved. The experimental results also demonstrate that the setup possesses a good polarization-selective imaging ability, which reveals that the setup may also be useful in polarization-selective spatial filtering imaging and polarization-encoded encryption.

Generation of arbitrary vector beams with liquid crystal polarization converters and vector-photoaligned q-plates

Arbitrary vector beams (VBs) are realized by the designed polarization converters and corresponding vector-photoaligned q-plates. The polarization converter is a specific twisted nematic cell with one substrate homogeneously aligned and the other space-variantly aligned. By combining a polarization-sensitive alignment agent with a dynamic micro-lithography system, various categories of liquid crystal polarization converters are demonstrated. Besides, traditional radially/azimuthally polarized light, high-order and multi-ringed VBs, and a VB array with different orders are generated. The obtained converters are further utilized as polarization masks to implement vector-photoaligning. The technique facilitates both the volume duplication of these converters and the generation of another promising optical element, the q-plate, which is suitable for the generation of VBs for coherent lasers. The combination of proposed polarization converters and correspondingly fabricated q-plates would drastically enhance the capability of polarization control and may bring more possibilities for the design of photonic devices.

Analysis of a segmented q-plate tunable retarder for the generation of first-order vector beams.

In this work we study a prototype q-plate segmented tunable liquid crystal retarder device. It shows a large modulation range (5π rad for a wavelength of 633 nm and near 2π for 1550 nm) and a large clear aperture of one inch diameter. We analyze the operation of the q-plate in terms of Jones matrices and provide different matrix decompositions useful for its analysis, including the polarization transformations, the effect of the tunable phase shift, and the effect of quantization levels (the device is segmented in 12 angular sectors). We also show a very simple and robust optical system capable of generating all polarization states on the first-order Poincaré sphere. An optical polarization rotator and a linear retarder are used in a geometry that allows the generation of all states in the zero-order Poincaré sphere simply by tuning two retardance parameters. We then use this system with the q-plate device to directly map an input arbitrary state of polarization to a corresponding first-order vectorial beam. This optical system would be more practical for high speed and programmable generation of vector beams than other systems reported so far. Experimental results are presented.

Simple method for generation of vector beams using a small-angle birefringent beam splitter.

A simple and practical system for generation of vector beams with arbitrary polarization and complex-amplitude distributions is proposed. The system mainly consists of a scalar computer-generated hologram (CGH), a small-angle birefringent beam splitter (BBS), and a Fourier lens with a filtering aperture (FA). The CGH is placed in front of the Fourier lens. The BBS is inserted between the CGH and the Fourier lens. When the CGH specially designed according to the method described in this Letter is illuminated by a plane beam or a Gaussian beam, a desired vector beam can be obtained through the FA placed at the back focal plane of the Fourier lens. Because no coupling element and half-wave plate are to be placed between the CGH and the BBS, the extinction ratios of both the two orthogonal polarization components for the vector beam can be better than 10(-5) and so high-quality vector beams can be generated.

Dielectric metasurfaces for complete control of phase and polarization with subwavelength spatial resolution and high transmission.

Metasurfaces are planar structures that locally modify the polarization, phase and amplitude of light in reflection or transmission, thus enabling lithographically patterned flat optical components with functionalities controlled by design. Transmissive metasurfaces are especially important, as most optical systems used in practice operate in transmission. Several types of transmissive metasurface have been realized, but with either low transmission efficiencies or limited control over polarization and phase. Here, we show a metasurface platform based on high-contrast dielectric elliptical nanoposts that provides complete control of polarization and phase with subwavelength spatial resolution and an experimentally measured efficiency ranging from 72% to 97%, depending on the exact design. Such complete control enables the realization of most free-space transmissive optical elements such as lenses, phase plates, wave plates, polarizers, beamsplitters, as well as polarization-switchable phase holograms and arbitrary vector beam generators using the same metamaterial platform.

Generation of vector beams with arbitrary spatial variation of phase and linear polarization using plasmonic metasurfaces.

A novel method is proposed to generate vector beams with arbitrary spatial variation of phase and linear polarization at the nanoscale using compact plasmonic metasurfaces with rectangular nanoapertures. The physical mechanism underlying the simultaneous control of light polarization and phase is explained. Vector beams with different spiral phasefronts are obtained by manipulating the local orientation and geometric parameters of the metasurfaces. In addition, radially and azimuthally polarized vector beams and double-mode vector beams are achieved through completely compensating for the Berry phase, which provides additional degrees of freedom for beam manipulation.

Generation of Airy vortex and Airy vector beams based on the modulation of dynamic and geometric phases.

We propose a novel method for the generation of Airy vortex and Airy vector beams based on the modulation of dynamic and geometric phases. In our scheme, the Airy beam is generated by the dynamic phase with a spatial light modulator, and the vortex phase or the vector polarization is modulated by the geometric phase with a dielectric metasurface. The modulation of the geometric phase provides an extra degree of freedom to manipulate the phase and the polarization of Airy beams. This scheme can be extended to generate any other types of optical beams with desirable phase and polarization.

Generation of cylindrical vector beams of high orders using uniaxial crystals

The generation of cylindrical vector beams in birefringent crystals is studied analytically and experimentally in paraxial and non-paraxial regimes. At sharp focusing (in the non-paraxial case), two foci corresponding ordinary and extraordinary beams are formed along the crystal’s axis. There is the radially polarized distribution in one focus and the azimuthally polarized distribution in the other focus when the incident beam has the vortex phase of the first order and circular polarization of the opposite direction. The results are extended to the generation of higher-order radially and azimuthally polarized laser beams. The physical experiments with an Iceland spar crystal have been conducted.

Concept of annular vector beam generation at terahertz wavelengths via a nonlinear parametric process.

In this paper, we describe our theoretical investigation and calculations for a terahertz (THz)-wave profile generated by difference frequency mixing (DFM) of focused, cylindrically symmetric, and polarized optical vector beams. Using vector diffraction theory, the second-order nonlinear polarization was estimated from the electric field components of the optical pump beams penetrating uniaxial, birefringent nonlinear optics (NLO) crystals, GaSe and CdSe. The approximate beam patterns of the THz waves were simulated using DFM formulation. The intensity patterns of the THz waves for GaSe and CdSe showed sixfold symmetry and cylindrical symmetry, respectively, based on the nonlinear susceptibility tensor of the crystals. As the phase-matching angle θ(PM) was constant with respect to the c axis of the NLO crystals, an annular vector beam with a narrow width was expected.

Optical Metasurfaces and Prospect of Their Applications Including Fiber Optics

Metasurfaces have emerged in the recent years as a platform to design subwavelength-thick optical components (“flat optics”), which can be used to implement any optical function (beam deflection, focusing, waveplates, etc). These flat optical components can be fabricated using a single lithographic step. The approach is particularly suited for patterning nonconventional substrates, such as semiconductor laser facets and optical fiber facets. In this paper, we review recent applications of metasurfaces to flat optical devices, including their use in semiconductor lasers and fiber optics. Metasurfaces make it possible to design all properties of light (amplitude, phase, and polarization), which enable us to build a large variety of flat optical components, including planar lenses, quarter-wave plates, optical vortex plates, holograms for vector beam generation, and ultrathin perfect absorbers and color coatings. We also review flat collimating lenses integrated on the facets of mid-infrared and far-infrared (terahertz) quantum cascade lasers, and novel techniques to create large arrays of nanostructures on fiber facets.

Exploiting cellophane birefringence to generate radially and azimuthally polarised vector beams

We exploit the birefringence of cellophane to convert a linearly polarised Gaussian beam into either a radially or azimuthally polarised beam. For that, we fabricated a low-cost polarisation mask consisting of four segments of cellophane. The fast axis of each segment is oriented appropriately in order to rotate the polarisation of the incident linearly polarised beam as desired. To ensure the correct operation of the polarisation mask, we tested the polarisation state of the generated beam by measuring the spatial distribution of the Stokes parameters. Such a device is very cost efficient and allows for the generation of cylindrical vector beams of high quality.

Generation of vector beams based on dielectric metasurfaces

Vector beam has recently attracted many attentions due to novel properties and wide applications. Finding a method efficiently generating high quality vector beam is very important when it is used in practice. In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the generation of vector beams based on dielectric metasurfaces, which are fabricated by femtosecond laser writing in silica glass. Three types of linearly polarized vector beams are produced by three specially designed metasurfaces. The vector beam generator is convenient and robust due to its simple optical path. We believe that metasurfaces will be widely applied in manipulating polarization, phase, and amplitude of light as the development of fabrication technology.

Generation of vector beams in terms of the partial light modulator of a twisted nematic liquid crystal

We propose a vector beam generation method based on the spatial light modulator composed of twisted nematic liquid crystal. According to the relation between the rotation angle and the applied voltage on the spatial light modulator, a common optical system for generating a variety of vector beams is designed in experiments. By using this common optical system, a variety of vector beams in axisymmetric phases as well as the complex vector beams are generated, and their polarization characteristics are observed and measured experimentally, where a tight focusing field is obtained, and this may be applied in optical tweezers and lithography. In addition, the device structure is simple and easy to operate, its efficiency of producing vector beam is very high and the laser spectral characteristics are not changed in the proposed generation of vector beams. Therefore, the method we proposed can find important potential applications in strong laser of vector beams interacting with matter, and laser acceleration, etc.

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Generation of arbitrary vector beam based on optical holography

According to the phase and amplitude modulation of the spatial light modulator (SLM) loading the phase distribution for generating arbitrary vector beams, we present a method of generating arbitrary vector beams based on the optical holography with angle multiplexing. First of all, we use the optical holography to record the special phase distribution on the SLM, and so an optical holographic grating is obtained. In the reproduction process, the two conjugate reference beams with the same incident angle illuminate the holographic grating and the superposition of the two reproduced beams is achieved, thus the arbitrary vector beams are obtained. This method can avoid the emergence of complex polarization distribution, and has advantages such as simple optical setup, convenient operation, and higher polarization purity of generated arbitrary vector beams. Good results of the arbitrary vector beams are also obtained by computer simulation.

Topological nature of optical bound states in the continuum.

Optical bound states in the continuum (BICs) have recently been realized in photonic crystal slabs, where the disappearance of out-of-plane radiation turns leaky resonances into guided modes with infinite lifetimes. We show that such BICs are vortex centers in the polarization directions of far-field radiation. They carry conserved and quantized topological charges, defined by the winding number of the polarization vectors, which ensure their robust existence and govern their generation, evolution, and annihilation. Our findings connect robust BICs in photonics to a wide range of topological physical phenomena.

Interferometric generation of high order vector beams using an adjustable cat-eye cavity laser

we present an interferometric generation method of high order vector beams by using a cat’s eye cavity laser and a Mach–Zehnder interferometric arrangement, and various vector beams can be flexibly generated by adjusting the cat’s eye reflector and the optical wedges in the Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The basic theory of the generation method is introduced first, and then two kinds of high order vector beams based on the method are generated, whose intensity and polarization distributions of generated beams are further measured. The measured results verify the flexibility and efficiency of the proposed method, which may demonstrate unique advantages in some optical systems where different kinds of vector beams are required to use but no need to change the laser source.

Generation of arbitrary cylindrical vector beams on the higher order Poincaré sphere.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel interferometric approach to generate arbitrary cylindrical vector beams on the higher order Poincaré sphere (HOPS). Our scheme is implemented by collinear superposition of two orthogonal circular polarizations with opposite topological charges. By modifying the amplitude and phase factors of the two beams, respectively, any desired vector beams on the HOPS with high tunability can be acquired. Our research provides a convenient way to evolve the polarization states in any path on the high order Poincaré sphere.

Cylindrical vector beam generation in multiple elliptical core fiber with gold wire

A new method to generate cylindrical vector beam carrying helical phase is proposed based on a multiple elliptical core fiber integrated with gold wire. Both the light field distributions in near- and far-field are considered. The simulation results show that the multiple core fiber filled with gold wire in the center can only support low-loss transmission for the analogous azimuthally polarized (AP) light field with discrete rotational symmetric profile in a broadband range, because the resonant coupling between the surface plasmon modes and the fiber core-guided supermodes. The far-field patterns for different number core are demonstrated to represent an effective AP beam. It also acts as an effective broadband transmission filter for azimuthal modes.

Generation of vector beams with liquid crystal disclination lines.

We report that light beams, guided along liquid crystal defect lines, can be transformed into vector beams with various polarization profiles. Using finite-difference time-domain numerical solving of Maxwell equations, we confirm that the defect in the orientational order of the liquid crystal induces a defect in the light field with twice the winding number of the liquid crystal defect, coupling the topological invariants of both fields. For example, it is possible to transform uniformly polarized light into light with a radial polarization profile. Our approach also correctly yields a zero-intensity region near the defect core, which is always present in areas of discontinuous light polarization or phase. Using circularly polarized incident light, we show that defects with noninteger winding numbers can be obtained, where topological constants are preserved by phase vortices, demonstrating coupling between the light's spin, orbital angular momentum, and polarization profile. Further, we find that an ultrafast femtosecond laser pulse traveling along a defect line splits into multiple intensity regions, again depending on the defect's winding number, allowing applications in beam steering and filtering. Finally, our approach describing the generation of complex optical fields via coupling with topological defect lines in optically birefringent nematic fluids can be easily extended to high-intensity beams that affect nematic ordering.