title: Mimicking optical activity for generating radially polarized light.
abstract: We propose a new scheme for generating radially polarized light by mimicking optical activity using linear birefringence. It involves a birefringent spirally varying retarder sandwiched between two orthogonally oriented quarter-wave plates. Using Poincaré sphere representation, we show that the polarization transformation of such a scheme is equivalent to that of a spirally varying optical activity and is capable of generating radially polarized light. We demonstrate the proof-of-concept using y-cut crystalline quartz.
authors.affiliation: DSO National Laboratories, Singapore. ppohboon@alum.mit.edu
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Phua
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Yuan Liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Tiaw
authors.forename: B C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Teo
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hong