Vectorial optical field generator for the creation of arbitrarily complex fields

Abstract

Generation of vectorial optical fields with complex spatial distribution in the cross section is of great interest in areas where exotic optical fields are desired, including particle manipulation, optical nanofabrication, beam shaping and optical imaging. In this work, a vectorial optical field generator capable of creating arbitrarily complex beam cross section is designed, built and tested. Based on two reflective phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulators, this generator is capable of controlling all the parameters of the spatial distributions of an optical field, including the phase, amplitude and polarization (ellipticity and orientation) on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Various optical fields containing phase, amplitude and/or polarization modulations are successfully generated and tested using Stokes parameter measurement to demonstrate the capability and versatility of this optical field generator.

Trapping of resonant metallic nanoparticles with engineered vectorial optical field

“…It is also worthy of noting that the impact of optical overheating effect to the optical trap would not be as severe if the metallic particle is trapped in air because there is no vapor bubble that destroy the trap, or the particle is imbedded in an ambient medium with large viscosity or high critical temperature for bubble formation. The required vectorial optical fields with complex spatial distribution can be generated by using two reflective phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulators [26]. Although an objective lens with maximum refracted angle 89° is necessary to realize the trapping in the water, it is still within the capabilities of the existing total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy.…”

The Two-Slit Interference of Vector Optical Fields With Both Radially and Azimuthally Variant States of Polarization

“…A cylindrical optical vector field with both radially and azimuthally variant SoP distributions can be expressed as [15,16] E(r, θ)…”

“…The current studies about the vector optical field are mainly focused on the manipulation of an optical field, characteristics of the focusing and propagation of a vector optical field, and their corresponding applications [8][9][10][11][12]. In particular, the generation of a vector optical field, focusing characteristics of a vector optical field and its propagation dynamics were demonstrated theoretically and experimentally [13][14][15][16][17]. The nonlinear dynamics of a vector optical field with different SoP distributions have been demonstrated [18,19].…”

Compact LCOS–SLM Based Polarization Pattern Beam Generator

“…However, their usual arrangement is as a rectangular grid of pixels, commonly known as LC spatial light modulators (LCSLM). LCSLMs can be used to produce spatially variant SOP controlled from a computer and, in recent years, a variety of different methods and systems have been developed to create such 2D polarization patterns with these devices [6]- [21].…”

“…But in all cases, the capability to separately encode unrelated patterns gives these systems much greater flexibility. Additional flexibility is obtained by adding a second LCSLM to incorporate independent amplitude and phase control over the SOP modulation [20], [21].…”