Interferometric measurement of arbitrary propagating vector beams that are tightly focused

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate a simple setup to generate and measure arbitrary vector beams that are tightly focused. The vector beams are created with a spatial light modulator and focused with a microscope objective with an effective numerical aperture of 1.2. The transverse polarization components ($E_x$, $E_y$) of the tightly focused vector beams are measured with 3 step interferometry. The axial component $E_z$ is reconstructed using the transverse fields with Gauss law. We measure beams with the following polarization states: circular, radial, azimuthal, spiral, flower and spider web.

arXiv comment4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Ultra-precise holographic beam shaping for microscopic quantum control
• Knotting fractional-order knots with the polarization state of light
• Knotted Polarizations and Spin in 3D Polychromatic Waves
• Polychromatic Electric Field Knots
• Simple computer program to calculate arbitrary tightly focused (propagating and evanescent) vector light fields

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Revealing Hidden Topology of Complex Vector Beams via Plasmonic Interactions