title: Generating and measuring nondiffracting vector Bessel beams.
abstract: Nondiffracting vector Bessel beams are of considerable interest due to their nondiffracting nature and unique high-numerical-aperture focusing properties. Here we demonstrate their creation by a simple procedure requiring only a spatial light modulator and an azimuthally varying birefringent plate, known as a q-plate. We extend our control of both the geometric and dynamic phases to perform a polarization and modal decomposition on the vector field. We study both single-charged Bessel beams as well as superpositions and find good agreement with theory. Since we are able to encode nondiffracting modes with circular polarizations possessing different orbital angular momenta, we suggest these modes will be of interest in optical trapping, microscopy, and optical communication.
authors.affiliation: CSIR National Laser Centre, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dudley
authors.forename: Yanming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Thandeka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mhlanga
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escuti
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forbes