Paraxial propagation of cylindrically polarized vectorial beam through uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis

¹ Institute of Fiber Optic Communication & Information Engineering, College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, P.R. China
² Department of Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science & Technology, Nanjing 210094, P.R. China
³ National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, P.R. China

^a e-mail: leejia@zjut.edu.cn

Received: 14 February 2012
Revised: 6 April 2012
Accepted: 29 June 2012
Published online: 3 August 2012

Abstract

The propagation of a cylindrically polarized vectorial (CPV) beam through uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis is studied. Analytical formulae are derived for the field components of the beam upon the propagation. Intensity distributions and degrees of polarization of the beam after the propagation are revealed by numerical simulations, respectively. It is demonstrated that the beam profile no longer remains cylindrically symmetric all along the propagation due to the effect of anisotropy of the crystal. Furthermore, it is also shown that both the beam properties and anisotropy of the crystal can affect the evolution of CPV beam. These conclusions may provide specific knowledge of the propagation properties of CPV beam by the use of the crystal as a fundamental optical element.