Abstract

We introduce a multilevel spiral phase plate (SPP) limited by a pseudoring polygonal aperture (PRPA). Such an SPP has the advantages of easier fabrication and greater suppression of the sidelobes of the diffraction field over that generated with a polygonal aperture (PA). The Fraunhofer diffraction fields generated by an SPP with a PRPA or with a PA have the same topological charge features and a similar diffraction pattern. Numerical evaluations show that the maximum bright annular-intensity difference between the diffraction patterns for the SPP with a PRPA and that of a PA does not exceed 3% under optimal design parameters.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

Fraunhofer diffraction of the plane wave by a multilevel (quantized) spiral phase plate

Victor V. Kotlyar and Alexey A. Kovalev
Opt. Lett. 33(2) 189-191 (2008)

Diffraction of a plane, finite-radius wave by a spiral phase plate

V. V. Kotlyar, S. N. Khonina, A. A. Kovalev, V. A. Soifer, H. Elfstrom, and J. Turunen
Opt. Lett. 31(11) 1597-1599 (2006)

Fraunhofer diffraction of a partially blocked spiral phase plate

Don M. Cottrell, Jeffrey A. Davis, and Travis J. Hernandez
Opt. Express 19(14) 12873-12878 (2011)

Diffraction of plane waves by finite-radius spiral phase plates of integer and fractional topological charge

Hipolito Garcia-Gracia and Julio C. Gutiérrez-Vega
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26(4) 794-803 (2009)

Diffraction of a finite-radius plane wave and a Gaussian beam by a helical axicon and a spiral phase plate

Victor V. Kotlyar, Alexey A. Kovalev, Roman V. Skidanov, Oleg Yu. Moiseev, and Victor A. Soifer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 24(7) 1955-1964 (2007)