Open AccessInterferometer setup for the observation of polarization structure near the unfolding point of an optical vortex beam in a birefringent crystal
Author(s) -
Maruthi M. Brundavanam,
Yoko Miyamoto,
Rakesh Kumar Singh,
Dinesh N. Naik,
Mitsuo Takeda,
K. Nakagawa
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.013573
Subject(s) - birefringence , optics , interferometry , polarization (electrochemistry) , physics , optical rotation , optical vortex , light beam , mach–zehnder interferometer , sagnac effect , optical axis , beam (structure) , materials science , chemistry , lens (geology)
We propose a novel birefringent interferometer setup for the study of unfolding points, and obtain for the first time to our knowledge the spatial polarization structure very near the unfolding point of a uniformly polarized optical vortex beam propagating in a birefringent crystal. The unfolding point is reconstructed by folding back the two separated eigen-beams at the output of the birefringent crystal into a single beam using another identical birefringent crystal, resulting in a birefringent interferometer of Mach-Zehnder type. We also demonstrate that the separation near the unfolding point can be varied by a small rotation of the second crystal.