Observation of the rotational doppler effect for optical beams with helical wave front using spiral zone plate

A rotating spiral zone plate was used to implement and measure the rotational Doppler effect for plane-polarized optical beams with helical wave front (optical vortices). The frequency shift was analyzed in terms of energy exchange between the beams and moving optical elements.     

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.     

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.