Abstract:
5
Abstract
We exploit the birefringence of cellophane to convert a linearly polarised
Gaussian beam into either a radially or azimuthally polarised beam. For that,
we fabricated a low-cost polarisation mask consisting of four segments of
cellophane. The fast axis of each segment is oriented appropriately in order to
rotate the polarisation of the incident linearly polarised beam as desired. To
ensure the correct operation of the polarisation mask, we tested the polarisation state of the generated beam by measuring the spatial distribution of the
Stokes parameters. Such a device is very cost efficient and allows for the
generation of cylindrical vector beams of high quality.
Description:
1
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, Department of Physics,
PO Box 62000-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
2
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Guenther-Scharowsky-Str. 1, D-91058
Erlangen, Germany
3
Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, Department of Physics, Friedrich
Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Staudtstr. 7/B2, D-91058 Erlangen,
Germany
4
Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, 25 Templeton, Ottawa, Ontario,
K1N 6N5 Canada
