Abstract

The properties of circularly polarized vortex beams in cylindrical polarization bases are studied. A circularly polarized vortex beam is decomposed into radial and azimuthal polarization. With the proper combination of vortex charge and the handedness of the circular polarization, a focal field with an extremely strong longitudinal component as well as a flat-topped profile can be obtained. The cylindrical decomposition also sheds light on the connections between orbital angular momentum and the spin of the light beams.

© 2006 Optical Society of America

Identification and separation of chiral particles by focused circularly polarized vortex beams

Yanan Zhang, Manman Li, Shaohui Yan, Yuan Zhou, Wenyu Gao, and Baoli Yao
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 39(8) 1371-1377 (2022)

Tight focusing of partially coherent and circularly polarized vortex beams

Baosuan Chen, Zhiming Zhang, and Jixiong Pu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26(4) 862-869 (2009)

Generation of sub-diffraction-limited pure longitudinal magnetization by the inverse Faraday effect by tightly focusing an azimuthally polarized vortex beam

Yunshan Jiang, Xiangping Li, and Min Gu
Opt. Lett. 38(16) 2957-2960 (2013)

Backscattered polarization patterns, optical vortices, and the angular momentum of light

Chaim Schwartz and Aristide Dogariu
Opt. Lett. 31(8) 1121-1123 (2006)

Circularly polarized beams and vortex generation in uniaxial media

Alessandro Ciattoni, Gabriella Cincotti, and Claudio Palma
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 20(1) 163-171 (2003)