Cylindrical vector beam generator using a two-element interferometer

Abstract

We realize a robust and compact cylindrical vector beam generator which consists of a simple two-element interferometer composed of a beam displacer and a cube beamsplitter. The interferometer operates on the higher-order Poincare sphere transforming a homogeneously polarized vortex into a cylindrical vector (CV) beam. We experimentally demonstrate the transformation of a single vortex beam into all the well-known CV beams and show the operations on the higher-order Poincare sphere according to the control parameters. Our method offers an alternative to the Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements and has the potential to be implemented as a monolithic device.

References in corpus (7)

• Polarization pattern of vector vortex beams generated by $q$-plates with different topological charges
• Creation and characterization of vector vortex modes for classical and quantum communication
• Generation of arbitrary cylindrical vector beams on the higher order Poincare sphere
• Classical entanglement: Oxymoron or resource?
• Classical and quantum properties of cylindrically polarized states of light
• Optical vault: reconfigurable bottle beam by conically refracted light
• Quantum computation with classical light: implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Generation and characterization of complex vector modes with digital micromirror devices
• Polarization interferometric prism: a versatile tool for generation of vector fields, measurement of topological charges and implementation of a spin-orbit Controlled-Not gate