Generation of helical Ince-Gaussian beams with a liquid-crystal display.
We generate helical Ince-Gaussian (HIG) beams by using complex amplitude and phase masks encoded onto a liquid-crystal display (LCD). These beams display an intensity pattern consisting of elliptic rings, whose number and ellipticity can be controlled, and a phase exhibiting a number of in-line vortices, each with a unitary topological charge. We show experimental results that display the properties of these elliptic dark hollow beams. We introduce a novel interference technique for generating the object and reference beams by using a single LCD and show the vortex interference patterns. We expect that these HIG beams will be useful in optical trapping applications.
Bentley
Joel B
JB
Department of Physics, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182-1233, USA.
Davis
Jeffrey A
JA
Bandres
Miguel A
MA
Gutiérrez-Vega
Julio C
JC