Production of radially and azimuthally polarized polychromatic beams

Abstract

We describe a system that efficiently provides radially or azimuthally polarized radiation from a randomly polarized source. It is constructed from two conical reflectors and a cylindrical sheet of polarizing film. Envisaged applications include a microscope illuminator for high-resolution surface plasmon resonance microscopy, illumination for high-resolution microlithography, and efficient coupling of a laser source to hollow optical fibers. The angular coherence function of light polarized by the device was measured to evaluate its usefulness for these applications.

Methods for Vectorial Analysis and Imaging in High-Resolution Laser Microscopy

“…Alternative solutions to the evaluation of diffraction for high-NA microscopes are not exclusive of linearly polarized beams and, among the possible choices, we limit discussion in this section to the radial polarization, which has attracted much interest lately (Bomzon et al, 2002;Dorn et al, 2003;Lerman and Levy, 2008;Novotny and Hecht, 2006;Quabis et al, 2000;Shoham et al, 2006;Yew and Sheppard, 2007a;Youngworth and Brown, 2000). The reason for such interest is found in the potential for beating the diffraction limit of ordinary microscopy.…”

“…(2) for linearly polarized fields, other states of polarization are increasingly attracting the interest of the community (Bomzon et al, 2002;Dorn et al, 2003;Lerman and Levy, 2008;Novotny and Hecht, 2006;Quabis et al, 2000;Shoham et al, 2006;Yew and Sheppard, 2007a;Youngworth and Brown, 2000). For instance, radially polarized laser beams have been recently introduced in optics as one of the most ingenious ways to overcome the diffraction limit that characterizes ordinary laser microscopy (Dorn et al, 2003;Lerman and Levy, 2008;Quabis et al, 2000;Yew and Sheppard, 2007a).…”

“…For instance, radially polarized laser beams have been recently introduced in optics as one of the most ingenious ways to overcome the diffraction limit that characterizes ordinary laser microscopy (Dorn et al, 2003;Lerman and Levy, 2008;Quabis et al, 2000;Yew and Sheppard, 2007a). However, azimuthally polarized laser beams also pose interesting questions regarding their injection into microscopes with high NA (Bomzon et al, 2002;Novotny and Hecht, 2006;Shoham et al, 2006;Youngworth and Brown, 2000). The subject can be further enriched by research connected to spatial profiles that differ from the mere Gaussian distribution.…”

Total-internal-reflection fluorescence microscopy with W-shaped axicon mirrors

“…The W-shaped axicon mirrors were first introduced by Sincerbox et al for doing dark-field microscopy [8]. Endo [9] used W-axicon optical resonators to generate arbitrary order Laguerre-Gaussian beams, whereas Shoham et al [10] utilized basically the same principle to generate radially or azimuthally polarized beams.…”

Vonalpásztázáson alapuló tomográfiás optikai mikroszkóp elméleti és kísérleti vizsgálata

“…Elfogadható felbontású radiálisan vagy azimutálisan polarizált nyaláb azonban elıállítható folyadék kristályos fázismodulátorokkal [41], vagy úgynevezett SLM-mel (Spatial Light Modulator). Kónikus felülető optikai elemek úgy, mint kónikus tükörpárok [42], polarizációs-rács axiconok [43] vagy Brewster szögben csiszolt axiconok [44] szintén alkalmasak axiális szimmetriájú polarizáció kiválasztására. Utóbbi esetén azonban a széles csúcsszög (kvarc: 112°) elıállítása jelentıs nehézség.…”