Double-slit interference of radially polarized vortex beams.

Both radially polarized (RP) and radially polarized vortex (RPV) beams are generated by an experimental setup with one phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator which efficiently modulates the phase retardation distributions of input beam by twice reflections. The polarizing properties and double-slit interference of both RP and RPV beams are investigated in detail. Misplacement and tilt appear in double-slit interference fringes of both RP beams and RPV beams in simulations and experiments. The fringe tilt number F in the intermediate region is proportional to the topological charge I of RPV beams with the approximate relation Fs(I) = 0.8125/ in simulations and Fe(I) = 0.8182/ in experiments. The double-slit interference method can be utilized to determine and analyze the topological charge of the beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]