1. Experimental realization to efficiently sort vector beams by polarization topological charge via Pancharatnam–Berry phase modulation
- Author
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Shixiang Xu, Yi Cai, Xuanke Zeng, Dianyuan Fan, Ying Li, Qinggang Lin, Zhenkuan Chen, Guoliang Zheng, and Shuiqin Zheng
- Subjects
Physics ,business.industry ,Optical communication ,02 engineering and technology ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Polarization (waves) ,01 natural sciences ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,010309 optics ,Optics ,Geometric phase ,0103 physical sciences ,Light beam ,0210 nano-technology ,business ,Phase modulation ,Optical vortex ,Circular polarization ,Topological quantum number - Abstract
This paper reports the experimental realization of efficiently sorting vector beams by polarization topological charge (PTC). The PTC of a vector beam can be defined as the repetition number of polarization state change along the azimuthal axis, while its sign stands for the rotating direction of the polarization. Here, a couple of liquid crystal Pancharatnam–Berry optical elements (PBOEs) have been used to introduce conjugated spatial phase modulations for two orthogonal circular polarization states. Applying these PBOEs in a 4-f optical system, our experiments show the setup can work for PTC sorting with a separation efficiency of more than 58%. This work provides an effective way to decode information from different PTCs, which may be interesting in many fields, especially in optical communication.
- Published
- 2018
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