Generation of a Radially Polarised Beam in a Solid-State Laser Using an Intracavity Spatially Variant Waveplate

Abstract

Radially polarised laser sources are of considerable interest due to their applications in areas such as laser processing, particle manipulation and high-resolution imaging. Previous approaches for generating radially polarised beams have made use of extra-cavity approaches such segmented waveplates [1] , along with intra-cavity methods such as grating mirrors [2] or the use of birefringent crystals [3] . An alternative approach is to use a femtosecond laser-written spatially variant waveplate (S-waveplate) to a convert linearly polarised beam to a radially polarised beam. S-waveplates have the attraction that they can produce radially-polarised beams with very high polarisation purity [4] , but, in the past, have suffered from very high scattering loss greatly limiting their usefulness. However, recent research has led to the discovery of a new type of ultrafast-laser-written birefringent modification allowing the writing of S-waveplates with better than an order-of-magnitude lower loss [5] . This latest development opens up the possibility of using S-waveplates as polarisation selecting elements in a solid-state laser to allow direct generation of desirable polarisation distributions.

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ORCID for Thomas, Lewis Jefferson-Brain: orcid.org/0000-0002-8838-5640

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