A liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) can be used in various ways to produce vector vortices. Superposition of scalar vortices with orthogonal polarization is a common approach, while a more recent technique is to use dual-phase modulation. These approaches require modulation of at least two phase patterns with a SLM or multiple SLMs. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to produce vector-vortices by modulating orthogonal light components through a single phase pattern with a SLM. It does not require interferometric setups, and simplifies the generation of light beams with V-point polarization singularities. Because of compact and robustness of our experimental setup, it can be easily integrated to any device for applications of vector vortices.
Vector-vortex (VV) beams are of significant interest for various applications. There have been substantial efforts toward developing a fast and efficient method for the characterization of generated VV beams which is crucial for their usage. Polarimetric approaches are commonly used to identify unknown VV beams but require multiple intensity recordings. This paper demonstrates a technique to detect VV beams and identify their parameters using the concept of self-referenced interferometry. The approach uses a single recorded interferogram to determine the beam parameters that allow rapid detection. The method even enables detection of VV beams having high-order optical vortices.
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