Vortex sensing analysis of radially and pseudo-radially polarized beams

Abstract

We present a simple method to check the exact realization of a radially polarized light beam by means of a vortex-sensing diffraction grating. The use of this grating easily allows the determination of the topological charges included in each of the two circular polarization components of the incident beam. Therefore a pure radially polarized beam can be easily distinguished from a pseudo-radially polarized beam. Experimental results are presented with radial beams generated with two different devices: a patterned radial polarizer and a specially designed liquid crystal device. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.