Abstract

The polarization rotation of hybridly polarized beams passing through a uniaxial crystal whose optical axis is orthogonal to the beam axis is theoretically and experimentally investigated. Based on the existing theory, analytical expressions of hybridly polarized beams in uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis are derived. Simulation results show that the distributions of the intensity patterns, the states of polarization, and the spin angular momentum of hybridly polarized beams in uniaxial crystals depend strongly on the beam radius, the propagation distance in the crystal, and the ratio of the extraordinary refractive index to the ordinary refractive index. The experimental investigations observed the polarization rotation behavior of hybridly polarized beams in rutile crystal, which are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The presented work opens up novel approaches for manipulating the polarization rotation of the structured light field by anisotropic crystals in the linear optics regime, which has potential applications in material characterization, polarization-sensitive sensing, and all-optical switching.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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