Near-Field Vortex Beams Diffraction on Surface Micro-Defects and Diffractive Axicons for Polarization State Recognition

Abstract

The diffraction of vortex Gaussian laser beams by elementary objects of micro-optics (surface micro-defects) to recognize the type of polarization (linear, circular, radial, azimuthal) of the input radiation was investigated in this paper. We considered two main types of defects (protrusion and depression in the form of a circle and a square) with different sizes (the radius and height were varied). Light propagation (3D) through the proposed micro-defects was modeled using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The possibility of recognizing (including size change) of surface micro-defects (protrusions and depressions) and all the above types of polarization are shown. Thus, micro-defects act as sensors for the polarization state of the illuminating beam. The focusing properties of micro-defects are compared with diffractive axicons with different numerical apertures (NAs). The possibility of sub-wavelength focusing with element height change is demonstrated. In particular, it is numerically shown that a silicon cylinder (protrusion) forms a light spot with a minimum size of the all intensity FWHM of 0.28λ.