Transformation of optical-vortex beams by holograms with embedded phase singularity

Spatial characteristics of diffracted beams produced by the “fork” holograms from incident circular Laguerre-Gaussian modes are studied theoretically. The complex amplitude distribution of a diffracted beam is described by models of the Kummer beam or of the hypergeometric-Gaussian beam. Physically, in most cases its structure is formed under the influence of the divergent spherical wave originating from the discontinuity caused by the hologram’s groove bifurcation. Presence of this wave is manifested by the ripple structure in the near-field beam pattern and by the power-law amplitude decay at the beam periphery. Conditions when the divergent wave is not excited are discussed.The diffracted beam carries a screw wavefront dislocation (optical vortex) whose order equals to algebraic sum of the incident beam azimuthal index and the topological charge of the singularity imparted by the hologram. The input beam singularity can be healed when the above sum is zero. In such cases the diffracted beam can provide better energy concentration in the central intensity peak than the Gaussian beam whose initial distribution coincides with the Gaussian envelope of the incident beam. Applications are possible for generation of optical-vortex beams with prescribed properties and for analyzing the optical-vortex beams in problems of information processing.     

Optical vortex generation with a “fork” hologram under conditions of high-angle diffraction

Spatial characteristics of the optical-vortex (OV) beams created during the Gaussian beam diffraction by a grating with groove bifurcation are analyzed theoretically and numerically. In contrast to previous works, condition of small-angle diffraction is no longer required and the diffracted beam can be strongly deformed. This causes the intensity profile rotation and the high-order OV decomposition into a set of secondary single-charged OVs. These effects are studied quantitatively and confronted with similar properties of a Laguerre-Gaussian beam that undergoes astigmatic telescopic transformation. In contrast to the latter case, the secondary OVs do not lie on a single straight line within the beam cross section, and morphology parameters of the individual secondary OVs carried by the same beam are, in general, different. Conditions for maximum relative separation of the secondary OVs with respect to the beam transverse size are specified. The results can be used for practical generation of OV beams and OV arrays with prescribed properties.     

Generation of optical vortex light beams by volume holograms with embedded phase singularity

Special features of the optical-vortex (OV) beams generated by thick holographic elements (HE) with embedded phase singularity are considered theoretically. The volume HE structure is based on the 3D pattern of interference between an OV beam and a standard reference wave with regular wavefront. The incident beam diffraction is described within the framework of a linear single-scattering model in which the volume HE is represented by a set of parallel thin layers with the “fork” holographic structure. An explicit integral expression is derived for the complex amplitude distribution of the diffracted paraxial beam with OV. The numerical analysis demonstrates that the HE thickness may essentially influence not only selectivity and efficiency of the OV beam generation but also the amplitude and phase profile of the diffracted beam as well as regularities of its propagation. We have studied the generated OV morphology and laws of its evolution; in particular, the possibility of obtaining a circularly symmetric OV beam regardless of the diffraction angle is revealed.     

Evaluation of a phase shifting method for vortex localization in optical vortex interferometry

The optical vortex interferometer uses a regular lattice of the optical vortices. In the previous papers we showed that changes in vortex lattice geometry can be related to physical quantities of the object being measured. The accuracy of such a measurement depends strongly on the precision of vortex point localization (vortex points are points where wavefront phase is undetermined). In this paper we compared the measurements of object wave tilt calculated from different localization methods applied to real interferograms and evaluate various localization methods.     

Full-vectorial analysis of optical vortex propagation in anisotropic cubic-quintic non-linear optical medium

This paper presents for the first time a full-vectorial analysis of optical vortex propagation in anisotropic cubic-quintic (CQ) non-linear medium. The purpose is to investigate the energy transfer mechanism and stability between orthogonal field components and how they are affected by the presence of material anisotropy in CQ materials. The numerical simulations were carried out via a three-dimensional finite difference based beam propagation method (3D-FD-BPM) which is capable of handling variations in any of the permittivity tensor components. Therefore, in this work we allowed all tensor components to vary independently and simulate vortex propagation for distances several times longer than the diffraction length. We expect that this work can provide new and important information regarding the behavior of these objects that may become valuable for the design of new photonic devices.     

The new method of topological charge determination of optical vortices in the interference field of the optical vortex interferometer

In this paper, the new method of determination of the topological charge of vortex points in the interference field obtained by three plane waves interference is presented. Such optical fields are used in the optical vortex interferometer (OVI) and the determination of vortex points’ topological charge allows of unique determination of the relative phase between interfering waves (phase unwrapping problem). The new method uses additional plane wave, which produce a characteristic fork-like fringe structure in the neighbourhood of vortex points. By analysing the orientation of these fork-like patterns one can read the sign of the topological charge of the given vortex point. The method is simple and can be used for OVI calibration performed before the measurements.     

Focus evolution of linearly polarized Lorentz beam with sine-azimuthal variation wavefront induced by one on-axis optical vortex

Focus evolution of linearly polarized Lorentz beam with sine-azimuthal variation wavefront induced by one on-axis optical vortex was investigated theoretically in this article. Calculation results show that the focal pattern can be altered considerably by the charge number of on-axis optical vortex under condition of certain beam parameters and phase parameter that indicates the sine phase change frequency on increasing azimuthal angle. And the focal evolution principle differs remarkably for different beam parameters and the phase parameter. In focus evolution process, some novel focal patterns appear, including annular focal pattern, two-peak focal pattern, intensity lines, hexagon containing two peaks, swallowtail shape, multipede shape, and complex focal pattern. Introduction of optical vortex adds one controllable parameter to alter focal pattern, which may extend application of Lorentz beam in some focusing systems.     

Displacements and deformations of a vortex light beam produced by the diffraction grating with embedded phase singularity

Properties of vortex light beams produced by a diffraction grating with groove bifurcation (“fork” structure) are studied in the case of small diffraction angles. Analytical expressions are derived for the amplitude distribution of a diffracted beam generated from an incident Gaussian beam with arbitrary radius and wavefront curvature, transversely shifted and inclined with respect to the nominal axis (normal to the grating crossing it at the bifurcation point). In such situations, the output beam becomes asymmetric; the optical vortex core and the intensity maximum displace orthogonally to the incident beam shift direction. The nearest vicinity of the vortex core preserves its circular symmetry and the optical vortex remains locally isotropic. The effects of misalignment depend on the incident beam characteristics, the diffraction order and the propagation distance behind the grating. Experimental measurements support the results of calculations.     

Propagation of a four-petal Gaussian vortex beam through a paraxial ABCD optical system

Based on the Collins diffraction integral formula, an analytical expression of a general four-petal Gaussian vortex beam passing through a paraxial ABCD optical system is derived by means of the mathematical technique. As a numerical example, the normalized intensity distribution of a four-petal Gaussian vortex beam propagating in free space is graphically demonstrated. The influences of beam order and topological charge on the normalized intensity distribution are discussed in detail. This research is useful to the optical trapping, optical communications, and beam splitting techniques, etc.     

大气湍流中高斯空心涡旋光束的焦面光强分布

运用广义惠更斯-菲涅耳原理和相位结构函数的平方近似,研究了聚焦高斯空心涡旋光束通过湍流大气传输后在焦平面内的光强分布的理论模型,同时分析了不同大气折射率结构常数C2n、聚焦距离、光束拓扑荷和湍流外尺度对焦面光强分布特性的影响.结果表明:随着聚焦距离的增加,焦面光强分布由中央凹陷状向高斯分布转变.弱湍流对焦面光强分布的影响可以忽略;高拓扑荷光束在湍流大气中传输时光波奇异性的保持较低拓扑荷奇异光束要强;随着湍流外尺度增加,焦面光强分布的中央凹陷状变浅,光强分布变平滑.     

Real-time optical reconstruction of the diffused 3D object using phase information calculated by Continuous Wavelet Transform

We propose the real time optical reconstruction of a three-dimensional (3D) object from a digitally recorded hologram. Phase distribution of the recorded hologram is numerically calculated by 1-dimensional Continuous Wavelet Transform (1D-CWT) for digital reconstruction with phase only information. Also, the phase distribution of 1D-CWT transferred to the spatial light modulator (SLM) is used to obtain optically reconstructed image. It is observed that an efficient real-time analysis can be achieved, if phase of 1D-CWT is used. In the same time, optically reconstructed 3D objects obtained by only phase information are about three times brighter than bleached hologram intensity's. So the minimum power loss can be obtained. Numerical and experimental results are presented.     

Optical transfer function of an optical system with a vortex phase mask in the presence of primary aberrations

The impact of primary aberrations on the optical transfer function of an optical system with a vortex phase mask has been investigated in detail. The optical transfer function of such a system becomes negative in a certain frequency range even in the absence of aberrations, a feature different from the case of an optical system in which center of the point spread function is bright.     

FDTD simulation of time varying optical vortex phenomena in SOI photonic crystal structures

In this paper we analyze the time varying optical vortex phenomena in the gain photonic crystals built on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer by using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. With launching the optical waves in 1.55 μm wavelength to the SOI rib waveguide, optical vortices are generated and the spinning details are observed at various time steps. The analysis results are helpful to understand the progress of optical vortices which may be utilized for the development of future nonlinear optical switches.     

Simplified system configuration for real-time Fourier transformation of optical pulses in amplitude and phase

Real-time Fourier transformation (RTFT) of optical waveforms in amplitude and phase (i.e. transform-limited RTFT) is a fundamental operation that enables the realization of many interesting ultrafast signal processing applications, including wavelength-tunable optical pulse filtering, all-optical temporal correlations and convolutions and temporal imaging, among others. In this paper, we demonstrate that under certain conditions, a single time lens (quadratic-phase temporal modulator) followed by a suitable dispersive delay line can be used to implement transform-limited RTFT of optical pulses. The design specifications and constraints of the proposed transform-limited RTFT systems are derived and discussed. As compared with the conventional methods, the proposed design does not require the use of an input dispersive device preceding the time lens or a second time lens after dispersion, thus resulting in a simpler and more practical alternative for implementing TL-RTFT of optical signals. The feasibility of our proposal to operate on picosecond optical waveforms using electro-optic time lenses has been confirmed by numerical simulations.     

部分相干涡旋光束在湍流大气中的传输特性

根据广义的惠更斯-菲涅耳原理,推导了部分相干涡旋光束在湍流介质中传输时光强分布情况的理论公式,详细研究了部分相干涡旋光束在湍流介质中的传输变化规律。研究结果表明,湍流介质的强弱,光源的相干性以及光束所带拓扑电荷数大小均会影响光束传输特性。     

Measuring the topological charge of an optical vortex by using a tilted convex lens

We demonstrate, analytically and experimentally, a simple, but effective method to determine the topological charge of an optical vortex by using a spherical bi-convex lens, a ubiquitous optical element found in any optics laboratory. Just by tilting the lens and recording the intensity distribution of a propagating vortex at a predicted position past the lens, we have been able to measure both the sign and the magnitude of the topological charge m   up to m=±14$m=\pm 14$. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with analytical predictions.     

Focusing of a vortex carrying beam with Gaussian background by an apertured system in presence of coma

In this paper, diffraction pattern of a vortex carrying beam with a Gaussian background has been studied by using Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction integral, in the presence of third-order coma. Results of intensity distribution and encircled energy at the Gaussian plane have been presented for two values of the topological charge. Positional shift and splitting of the dark core have been investigated in detail. It is noticed that the diffraction pattern of a beam with double topological charge is affected more by comatic aberration in comparison to the beam with single topological charge. We have also verified our results by using the optical transfer function approach. Propagation of an apertured Gaussian background vortex beam through a π-phase shifter has also been studied for two values of the topological charge.     

涡旋光束在不同盐度的水下湍流中的传输特性的实验研究

研究光束在海洋湍流中的传输特性尤为重要.为了更贴近实际情况,人工搭建了能控制水下湍流强度和盐度的装置来研究涡旋光束和高斯光束在水下湍流中的传输特性.结果表明:相比于未添加海盐的水下湍流,光束在增添海盐的水下湍流中传输光斑会更加弥散,光强会更弱.无论是强湍流还是弱湍流,m=2的涡旋光束在盐度为4.35‰的水下湍流中的闪烁...     

Reversal of the dipole vortex in a negative index of refraction material

When a small particle is illuminated by a circularly polarized laser beam, the induced electric dipole moment rotates in a plane. The flow lines of the emitted electromagnetic energy are the field lines of the Poynting vector. When the particle is embedded in a dielectric, these field lines have a vortex structure, and the rotation in the vortex has the same orientation as the rotation direction of the dipole. We show that when the embedding medium is a negative index of refraction material, the direction of rotation in the vortex is reversed.