Rotating vectorial vortices produced by space-variant subwavelength gratings.
A new class of vectorial vortex based on coherent addition of two orthogonal circularly polarized Bessel beams of identical order but with different propagation constants is presented. The transversely space-variant axially symmetric polarization distributions of these vectorial fields rotate as they propagate, while they maintain a propagation-invariant Bessel intensity distribution. These properties were demonstrated by use of discrete space-variant subwavelength gratings for 10.6 microm CO2 laser radiation. The polarization properties were verified by both full space-variant polarization analysis and measurements. Rotating intensity patterns are also demonstrated by transmitting the vectorial vortices through a linear polarizer.
Niv
Avi
A
Optical Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Biener
Gabriel
G
Kleiner
Vladimir
V
Hasman
Erez
E