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

Generation of a Radially Polarised Beam in a Solid-State Laser Using an Intracavity Spatially Variant Waveplate
Generation of a Radially Polarised Beam in a Solid-State Laser Using an Intracavity Spatially Variant Waveplate
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.
Jefferson-Brain, Thomas, Lewis
8bce2a02-37a4-4277-a8cb-0c40bde57837
Lei, Yuhao
347ba758-df03-47b6-baed-3a58285173f7
Kazansky, Peter
a5d123ec-8ea8-408c-8963-4a6d921fd76c
Clarkson, William
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Jefferson-Brain, Thomas, Lewis
8bce2a02-37a4-4277-a8cb-0c40bde57837
Lei, Yuhao
347ba758-df03-47b6-baed-3a58285173f7
Kazansky, Peter
a5d123ec-8ea8-408c-8963-4a6d921fd76c
Clarkson, William
44dbf144-a802-4731-8c15-9b9b0f8df04f

Jefferson-Brain, Thomas, Lewis, Lei, Yuhao, Kazansky, Peter and Clarkson, William (2021) Generation of a Radially Polarised Beam in a Solid-State Laser Using an Intracavity Spatially Variant Waveplate. In 2021 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2021. 1 pp . (doi:10.1109/CLEO/Europe-EQEC52157.2021.9542447).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

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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e-pub ahead of print date: 21 June 2021
Published date: June 2021
Venue - Dates: 2021 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, Virtual, 2021-06-21 - 2021-06-25

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 452105
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/452105
PURE UUID: d50d954c-6e45-425b-9d73-57c13a1cc129
ORCID for Thomas, Lewis Jefferson-Brain: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8838-5640

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Date deposited: 11 Nov 2021 17:37
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 14:43

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Contributors

Author: Thomas, Lewis Jefferson-Brain ORCID iD
Author: Yuhao Lei
Author: Peter Kazansky
Author: William Clarkson

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