Abstract

Cylindrically polarized (CP) beams [1] have numerous applications in nanoscale optical imaging and manipulation, e.g. stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy [2], particle trapping [3], superfocussing [4], and excitation of subwavelength plasmonic modes on tapered metallic nanowires [5]. CP beams can be obtained using spatial light modulators or holographic phase-masks, however performance is typically narrow-band and the resulting beams can be of poor quality. Cylindrical polarized doughnut-shaped beams are general eigenstates of optical fibres; such radially and azimuthally polarized (AP) modes (TM₀₁ and TE₀₁ modes) have been harnessed in a number of recent experiments demonstrating in-fibre generation of CP beams [6, 7].

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