Generating Radially and Azimuthally Polarized Beams by Using a Pair of Lateral Displacement Beamsplitters

Abstract

This paper proposes a modified polarization converter for generating radially and azimuthally polarized beams. Based on a Mach–Zehnder-like interferometric structure, the device consists of a pair of lateral displacement beamsplitters (LDBs) and two half-wave plates that manipulate the states of polarization of incident linearly polarized light. Through the coherent superposition of two orthogonal Hermite–Gaussian modes in the far field, radially and azimuthally polarized beams can be obtained simultaneously. A prototype was assembled to demonstrate the feasibility of the design. The proposed design has the advantage of having a simple, symmetric, compact, and robust structure. In addition, the introduction of LDBs substantially reduces the cost of this device. Moreover, the design can be applied to a broadband pulsed laser with considerable potential in high-power applications.

Keywords

• beam splitters
• waveplates
• coherence
• interference
• polarizations