Bessel-like beams with controllable rotating local linear polarization during propagation

Helico-conical vector beams

In this work, we propose and demonstrate experimentally a new family of vector beams, the helico-conical vector beams (HCVBs), whose spatial degree of freedom is encoded in the helico-conical optical beams. We use Stokes polarimetry to study their properties and find that upon propagation their transverse polarization distribution evolves from nonhomogeneous to quasihomogeneous, such that even though their global degree of nonseparability remains constant, locally it decreases to a minimum value as z → ∞. We corroborated this quantitatively using the Hellinger distance, a novel metric for vectorness that applies to spatially disjoint vector modes. To the best of our knowledge, HCVBs are the second family of vector beams featuring this behavior, paving the way for applications in optical tweezing or information encryption.

Vector optical field with the polarization varying along an arbitrary circular trajectory on the Poincaré sphere

As an inherent feature of vector optical field, the spatial distribution of polarization brings additional degrees of freedom to engineer the optical field and control the interaction between light and matters. Here we focus on the variation of polarization in single vector optical field, which can be defined by the trajectory on the Poincaré sphere. Based on the amplitude-phase-polarization joint modulation method we propose, vector optical field, whose variation of polarization follows arbitrary circular trajectory on the Poincaré sphere, can be generated. Moreover, the tightly focusing behaviors of the vector optical fields with the polarization varying along parallel circles on the Poincaré sphere are compared. Relations between the circular trajectory and the central intensity of the hollow focal field are concluded.

Structuring total angular momentum of light along the propagation direction with polarization-controlled meta-optics

Recent advances in wavefront shaping have enabled complex classes of Structured Light which carry spin and orbital angular momentum, offering new tools for light-matter interaction, communications, and imaging. Controlling both components of angular momentum along the propagation direction can potentially extend such applications to 3D. However, beams of this kind have previously been realized using bench-top setups, requiring multiple interaction with light of a fixed input polarization, thus impeding their widespread applications. Here, we introduce two classes of metasurfaces that lift these constraints, namely: i) polarization-switchable plates that couple any pair of orthogonal polarizations to two vortices in which the magnitude and/or sense of vorticity vary locally with propagation, and ii) versatile plates that can structure both components of angular momentum, spin and orbital, independently, along the optical path while operating on incident light of any polarization. Compact and integrated devices of this type can advance light-matter interaction and imaging and may enable applications that are not accessible via other wavefront shaping tools.

Creating complex forms of structured light typically requires bulky optics and multiple interactions with incident light. Here the authors demonstrate versatile control over light’s polarization and orbital angular momentum along the propagation direction with a single metasurface.