Abstract

We experimentally and theoretically study the abrupt polarization transitions of vector autofocusing Airy beams associated with the spin–orbit interactions. It is shown that when the topological charges of the polarization and the attached spiral phase are equal in number, the local polarizations undergo an abrupt transition from linear to circular polarizations at the focal point, and the associated orbital angular momentum partially converts into the spin of photons. The experimental results are theoretically explained from the far-field properties of the beams in terms of Hankel transformations.

© 2013 USG

Polarization transitions in the focus of radial-variant vector circular Airy beams

Tong Li, Bingsong Cao, Xian Zhang, Xiaoxiao Ma, Kaikai Huang, and Xuanhui Lu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 36(4) 526-532 (2019)

Spin-orbit coupling induced polarization transform in the autofocusing of ring Airy beams with hybrid polarizations

Xiang Zhang, Lei Han, Xuanguang Wu, Jianying Du, Yujie Xin, Bingyan Wei, Sheng Liu, Peng Li, and Jianlin Zhao
Opt. Express 31(26) 44019-44027 (2023)

Orbit-induced localized spin angular momentum of vector circular Airy vortex beam in the paraxial regime

Tao Geng, MIN Li, and Hanming Guo
Opt. Express 29(9) 14069-14077 (2021)

Manipulating spin-dependent splitting of vector abruptly autofocusing beam by encoding cosine-azimuthal variant phases

Yi Zhang, Peng Li, Sheng Liu, Lei Han, Huachao Cheng, and Jianlin Zhao
Opt. Express 24(25) 28409-28418 (2016)

Spiral autofocusing Airy beams carrying power-exponent-phase vortices

Peng Li, Sheng Liu, Tao Peng, Gaofeng Xie, Xuetao Gan, and Jianlin Zhao
Opt. Express 22(7) 7598-7606 (2014)