Abstract

We report on the experimental realization of flat mirrors enabling the broadband generation of optical vortices upon reflection. The effect is based on the geometric Berry phase associated with the circular Bragg reflection phenomenon from chiral uniaxial media. We show the reflective optical vortex generation from both diffractive and nondiffractive paraxial light beams using spatially patterned chiral liquid crystal films. The intrinsic spectrally broadband character of spin-orbit generation of optical phase singularities is demonstrated over the full visible domain. Our results do not rely on any birefringent retardation requirement and, consequently, foster the development of a novel generation of robust optical elements for spin-orbit photonic technologies.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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