Abstract

Cylindrical vector beams (CVBs) are the class of laser beams that arise from the solution to the vector Helmholtz equation with cylindrical boundary conditions [1]. In contrast to the paraxial solutions, CVBs possess azimuthal symmetry in their amplitude distribution and a spatially inhomogeneous polarization direction. For the lowest azimuthal order modes, the electric-field vector makes a constant angle, ϕ₀, with the beam radius, with the cases ϕ₀=0° and ϕ₀=90° corresponding to states of radial and azimuthal polarization, respectively.

© 2013 Japan Society of Applied Physics, Optical Society of America