Evanescent Bessel beam generation through filtering highly focused cylindrical vector beams with a defect mode one-dimensional photonic crystal

We propose a simple setup for generating evanescent Bessel beams using the defect mode of one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal. The angular selectivity provided by the defect mode mimics the role of an axicon for Bessel beam generation. When an azimuthally polarized beam is strongly focused onto a 1D defect mode photonic crystal interface, an evanescent Bessel beam of the first-order is produced, while an evanescent Bessel beam of the zeroth-order will be created under a radially polarized beam illumination. Switching between a donut shape and a solid focal distribution can be easily realized by controlling the polarization of the illumination. Such a versatile evanescent Bessel beam generation may find potential applications in optical trapping.     

Simple Nd:YAG laser generates vector and vortex beam

We report a simple Nd:YAG laser that emits radially polarized beam with helical wavefront. The laser cavity consists of a piece of laser crystal and a plane output coupler, and there is no additional polarization component inside it. The pump light is converted into annular profile through de-focal coupling into a multi-mode fiber. For the continuous-wave(CW) operation, the laser emits radially polarized vortex beam, and it is observed that the helical wavefront of the laser beam is switched from right handedness to left handedness when the output coupler is tilted slightly. For the Q-switched operation under the insertion of a Cr4t:YAG saturable absorber inside the cavity, we obtain radially polarized outputs with left-handedness helical wavefront. By tilting the laser crystal slightly, the laser output switches to azimuthal polarization at pump power larger than 4.5 W and left-handedness helical wavefront of laser beam is preserved.     

Generation of radially polarized mode in Yb fiber laser by using a dual conical prism

For the first time to our knowledge, a radially polarized beam is generated in an Yb-doped multimode double-clad fiber laser by using an intracavity dual conical prism. Up to 6.2 mW of output power is obtained from a 2 m long gain fiber with 7.4% slope efficiency. This research opens a new window to obtaining a radially polarized beam directly from an active fiber.     

Single higher-order transverse mode operation of a radially polarized Nd:YAG laser using an annularly reflectivity-modulated photonic crystal coupler

We demonstrate single higher-order transverse mode operation of a radially polarized Nd:YAG laser by using a polarization-selective and reflectivity-modulated output coupler. A narrow annular region with low reflectivity fabricated in a photonic crystal mirror behaves so as to select a higher-order transverse mode of a cylindrically symmetric laser beam. A double-ring-shaped radially polarized TM(02) mode beam is stably generated.     

Generation of radially polarized light beams of high quality using a step-index optical fiber

We present an experimental setup to generate radially polarized beams without using high-cost optical elements. In the setup a four-segment polarization converter is used in front of the fiber to produce a pseudo radially polarized beam. A traditional step-index fiber which supports only LP₀₁ and LP₁₁ modes is then used as a mode-cleaning device. A commercial mechanical fiber-squeezer polarization controller is applied to produce adequate pressure and twist onto the fiber. The four-segment polarization converter and the fiber squeezer polarization controller are adjusted by turns for improving the beam quality in intensity and polarization. Additionally, several methods of characterizing the polarization properties of radially polarized beams are reviewed. One of the latest methods is applied for characterizing the polarization properties of the radially polarized beams produced by using our technique. The results show the highquality of the obtained beams.     

Tight focus of a radially polarized and amplitude- modulated annular multi-Gaussian beam

The focusing of a radially polarized beam without annular apodization ora phase filter at the entrance pupil of the objective results in a wide focus and low purity of the longitudinally polarized component. However, the presence of a physical annular apodization or phase filter makes some applications more difficult or even impossible. We propose a radially polarized and amplitude-modulated annular multi-Gaussian beam mode. Numerical simulation shows that it can be focused into a sharper focal spot of 0.125λ² without additional apodizations or filters. The beam quality describing the purity of longitudinally polarized component is up to 86%.     

Experimental Research on Focusing Property of Radially Polarized Beam Based on Solid Immersion Lens

Realization of a near-field optical virtual probe based on an evanescent Bessel beam is strongly dependent on a radially polarized beam; this makes it essential to study the focusing property of the beam. In this paper, two experimental setups based on a fiber device and a liquid crystal device, respectively, are built to generate a radially polarized beam. This beam and an annular radially polarized beam are focused by means of a high numerical aperture objective and a solid immersion lens (SIL). Near-field distribution of the focus spot, the evanescent Bessel field, is experimentally measured with a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM). The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the central peak of the evanescent Bessel field is about 200 nm in the close vicinity of the bottom surface of SIL. This has potential for use as a near-field optical virtual probe.     

Tight focusing of double ring shaped radially polarized beam with high NA lens axicon

A method is presented for generation of a sub wavelength (0.45λ) longitudinally polarized beam, which propagates without divergence over lengths of about 8λ in free space. This is achieved by tight focusing of double ring shaped radially polarized beam with a high NA lens axicon that utilizes spherical aberration to duplicate the performance of an axicon and to create an extended focal line. The intensity distributions were calculated based on the vector diffraction theory and it was observed that in the case of high numerical aperture (NA) lens axicon, the distribution of the total intensity near the focus had little effect on the degree of truncation of the incident beam by the pupil.     

Numerical analysis of a photonic crystal fiber based on two polarized modes for biosensing applications

This paper presents a theoretical study on a photonic crystal fiber plasmonic refractive index biosensor. The proposed photonic crystal fiber sensor introduces the concept of simultaneous detection with the linearly polarized and radially polarized modes because the sensing performance of the sensor based on both modes is relatively high, which will be useful for selecting the modes to make the detection accurately. The sharp single resonant peaks of the linearly polarized mode and radially polarized mode, are stronger and more sensitive to the variation of analyte refractive index than that of any other polarized mode in this kind of photonic crystal fiber. For linearly polarized mode and radially polarized mode, the maximum sensitivities of 10448.5nm per refractive index unit and 8230.7nm per refractive index unit can be obtained, as well as 949.8 and 791.4 for figure of merits in the sensing range of 1.33-1.45, respectively. Compared with the conventional Au-metalized surface plasmon resonance sensors, our device is better and can be applied as a biosensor.     

Tight Focusing Properties of Radially Polarized Gaussian Beams with Pair of Vortices

The tight focusing properties of a radially polarized Gaussian beam with a nested pair of vortices having a radial wave front distribution are investigated theoretically by the vector diffraction theory.The results show that the optical intensity in the focal region can be altered considerably by changing the location of the vortices nested in a radially polarized Gaussian beam.It is noted that focal evolution from one annular focal pattern to a highly confined focal spot in the transverse direction is observed corresponding to the change in the location of the optical vortices in the input plane.It is also observed that the generated focal hole or spot lead to a focal shift along the optical axis remarkably under proper radial phase modulation.Hence the proposed system may be applied to construct tunable optical traps for both high and low refractive index particles.     

Tight focusing of partially coherent radially polarized beam with high NA lens axicon

Tight focusing of radially polarized partially coherent vortex beam over a high numerical aperture lens axicon system is introduced and its propagation properties are studied based on vectorial Debye theory. The effect of propagation parameters on the intensity distribution, the polarization property and the coherent property of the beam is illustrated analytically and numerically. It is shown that the correlation length and maximal NA angle has a significant influence on the intensity profile.     

Evanescent Bessel beam generation via surface plasmon resonance excitation by a radially polarized beam

A simple setup for generating evanescent Bessel beams is proposed. When a radially polarized beam is strongly focused onto a dielectric-metal interface, the entire beam is p-polarized with respect to the dielectric-metal interface, enabling excitation of surface plasmons from all directions. The angular selectivity of surface plasmon excitation mimics the function of an axicon, leading to an evanescent nondiffracting Bessel beam. The created evanescent Bessel beam may be used as a virtual probe for near-field optical imaging and sensing applications.     

基于内腔布儒斯特双轴锥棱镜的掺镱光纤激光器的径向偏振模振荡

实验采用一个内腔布儒斯特双轴锥棱镜,在掺镱多模双包层光纤激光器中实现了径向偏振光振荡,并在长2 m的增益光纤中获得了高达6.2 mW的功率输出.研究揭示了从光纤激光器振荡中获得径向偏振光的新途径.然而,该激光器输出的径向偏振光的光强分布并不很均匀,且偏振消光比较低,需要进一步改进.     

The focusing property of vector Bessel-Gauss beams by a high numerical aperture objective

The rich available transverse intensity structure of vector Bessel-Gauss beams make it important to probe into the focusing property by high numerical aperture objective. In this paper, we obtain the analytical expressions of azimuthally, radially and longitudinally polarized components in the focal area of the objective after tight focusing. Theoretical analysis and the numerical simulation show that, the transverse intensity distributions of the focused beams still have doughnut-like structure, two separate peak structure and circularly aligned array structure. The focused beam spots obtained by an objective with annular aperture usually have smaller spots than with circular aperture. The focused beam of the vector Bessel-Gauss beam with lowest mode number m = 0 is a radially and azimuthally polarized doughnut-like beam with no longitudinal component. These properties and results are useful in optical trapping and particle alignment.     

Propagation and parametric characterization of the polarization structure of paraxial radially and azimuthally polarized beams

Analytical expressions are provided for describing the free-space evolution of the polarization structure of paraxial beams whose electric-field vector at some transverse plane exhibits either a radially or an azimuthally polarized behavior. At each transverse plane, the polarization distribution across the beam profile is characterized by means of two sets of parameters, namely, the so-called (local) radial Stokes representation, and the (overall) percentage of the irradiance associated with the radial and azimuthal field components. The propagation laws for these sets of parameters are also shown. As an illustrative example, a radially polarized beam is analized whose wavefront contains a spiral phase factor.     

Smallest focal hole

We study theoretically routes toward the most confined dark channel that can be obtained using high angular aperture focusing. One possible solution is to use a radially polarized beam combined with an optical singularity. Another possibility is to use an azimuthally polarized light beam combined with an annular aperture or a phase filter. Our results suggest that a focal hole of full-width at half maximum of approximately 0.3λ₀/NA is achievable, where λ₀ is the wavelength in vacuum and NA is the numerical aperture of the focusing system. Finally, we show that by letting a phase-shifted plane wave and a focused scalar wave interfere only one point in the focal plane will exhibit zero intensity. Advantages and disadvantages of the schemes are discussed.     

基于轴棱锥产生近似无衍射Mathieu光束的新方法

提出了一种基于轴棱锥产生零阶近似无衍射Mathieu光束的新方法,利用轴棱锥聚焦具有椭圆高斯振幅调制的平面波,得到近似零阶无衍射Mathieu光束.根据椭圆高斯平面波经轴棱锥衍射的衍射积分公式,对光强分布进行了数值模拟,依据几何光学模型计算了近似无衍射Mathieu光束的最大无衍射距离,并设计了实验对理论模拟的结果进行了验证.实验采用柱透镜和准直扩束系统变换圆高斯光束产生具有椭圆高斯振幅调制的平面波,用轴棱锥聚焦该平面波后得到近似无衍射Mathieu光束,实验结果与理论模拟和计算相符.     

Efficient conversion of a radially polarized beam to a nearly Gaussian beam

We demonstrate an efficient method for transformation of a radially polarized Laguerre-Gaussian beam to a nearly Gaussian beam with much higher beam quality. The method is based on separation of the radially polarized mode into two degenerate modes and coherent addition of the modes after phase flattening. We transformed a high-power Nd:YAG radially polarized (0,1)(*) Laguerre-Gaussian beam with M(2)=2.52 and power of 30 W into a nearly Gaussian beam with M(2)=1.3. As a result, the brightness increased by a factor of approximately 2.5.     

Propagating a partially coherent radially polarized beam through aligned and misaligned ABCD optical systems

In the present work the propagation of a partially coherent radially polarized beam through aligned and misaligned ABCD optical systems is discussed. The elements of the beam coherence-polarization matrix for a partially coherent radially polarized beam propagating through these systems are derived for the first time. Using the derived analytical results the intensity distribution of the focused partially coherent radially polarized beam after a low-NA lens is investigated. It is shown that the coherence of the light source affects the beam intensity profile at the focal plane significantly, while for the given coherence of the light source the focal length of the used lens does not affect the beam intensity profile at the focal plane. This is consistent with the case of a partially coherent Hermite-Gaussian beam, as expected.     

Bessel beams: Effects of polarization

An approximation to a Bessel beam produced by tightly focusing linearly polarized light is known to produce a smaller central lobe than focusing plane polarized light. This is because the plane polarized wave gives a broad central lobe caused mainly by a parasitic longitudinal field component. It is known that this problem can be overcome by focusing radially polarized light. Here we demonstrate that other polarization distributions based on a linear combination of transverse electric (TE1) and transverse magnetic (TM1) fields can give a beam even narrower than for the radially polarized case. Special cases of this combination are identified, corresponding to the smallest width (TE1), and the maximum peak intensity compared with the side lobes (electric dipole polarization). Axially-symmetric forms can be generated by illumination with elliptically polarized light. A particular case is azimuthal polarization with a phase singularity, which is equivalent to TE1. For a semi-angular aperture of 60°, the TE1 case gives a central lobe width 9% narrower than for radially polarized illumination, while for plane polarized illumination it is 12% wider than the radially polarized case.