Diffraction of light by a spiral phase plate with piecewise-continuous microrelief
A.A. Kovalev, V.V. Kotlyar, S.S. Stafeev, V.A. Soifer

Full text of article: Russian language.

Abstract:
Using a Huygens–Fresnel principle and the FDTD method we show that an optical vortex generated by a refractive spiral plate with a relief step has an asymmetric profile. The annular diffraction pattern in the optical vortex beam cross-section is found to be disturbed at a distance of several Fresnel lengths not only for the near-field diffraction but also for the middle-field diffraction. For a spiral phase plate with topological charge m = 3, the asymmetry of the optical vortex has been shown experimentally.

Key words:
refractive spiral phase plate, optical vortex, thin element, transmittance function, microrelief, Huygens-Fresnel’s principle.

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