Effectively Identifying the Topological Charge and Polarization Order of Arbitrary Singular Light Beams Based on Orthogonal Polarization Separating

Abstract

Singular beams with spatially variant field distributions have various fantastic applications. However, one of the significant challenges that hinder the wide application of singular beams is how to effectively identify the topological charge and the polarization order of arbitrary singular beams. We found that when a light beam with arbitrary polarization state illuminates a polarization-sensitive blazed-grating, the horizontal and vertical component can be separated from the incident beam. Based on this phenomenon, an effective method is proposed to probe the integral topological charge and polarization order of arbitrary singular beams. With this detection method, the vortex beam, cylindrical vector beam and cylindrical vector vortex beam with different topological charges and polarization orders have been experimentally identified. This effective detection method can be widely used to measure the topological charge and polarization order of arbitrary singular beams.

Self-referenced interferometry for single-shot detection of vector-vortex beams

“…In this approach, the diffraction pattern becomes difficult to analyze for high-order VV beams. Another approach is to measure the TC of the orthogonal components of the input VV beam by analyzing a pair of interferograms recorded using a reference beam 57 . Interference-based methods are intuitive and have simpler implementation.…”