Concentric piecewise azimuthally polarized beam by a pure phase plate

Focusing properties of the azimuthally polarized beam induced by a pure phase plate are investigated theoretically. The pure phase plate consists of two concentric portions, one center circle portion and one outer annular portion, through which the azimuthally polarized beam passed evolves into concentric piecewise azimuthally polarized beam. When the phase shift of the center portion is π, one ring focus may evolve into novel focal patterns with increasing radius of the center circle portion, such as cylindrical crust focus, two-ring focus, and three-ring focus. And if the geometrical parameters are unchanged, focal patterns also changes considerably with tunable phase of the center portion. Ring focus shifts along the optical axis on the increasing phase. Some optical gradient force distributions and dependence of focal shift on phase shift are also illustrated. This kind of concentric piecewise azimuthally polarized beam can be used in optical manipulation technology.