Abstract

A consistent theoretical description of the polarization properties of Ince–Gauss (IG) laser beams is provided by constructing paraxial IG solutions to Maxwell equations. We confirm this description experimentally by recording both the dominant and cross-polarization components. Moreover, by experimentally confirming the evolution of the dominant and cross-polarization components as functions of ellipticity parameters, our paper extends further support to a unified treatment of the three (Laguerre–Gauss, Hermite–Gauss, and IG) families of paraxial laser beams.

© 2017 Optical Society of America

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