10.1117/2.1201103.

003512

All-ber laser generates cylindrical vector beams

Lixin Xu, Rui Zheng, Chun Gu, Anting Wang, and Hai Ming A very simple approach enables fabrication of an all-ber laser with switchable radial and azimuthal polarization states. Cylindrical vector (CV) beams are optical beams whose polarization states exhibit cylindrical symmetry across their cross sections (see Figure 1). This is different from traditional polarization types, such as linearly, elliptically, and circularly polarized beams, where the polarization state is spatially homogeneous across the beams cross section.1 CV beams exhibit unique focusing properties through high-numerical-aperture lenses. Beams with radial polarization can be focused onto a smaller spot than traditionally polarized beams characterized by strong and localized longitudinal components. A focal spot as small as 0.16 2 (where is the operational wavelength) has been obtained for radial polarization using an annular aperture. For azimuthally polarized beams, the focused eld yields a doughnut-shaped spot with a symmetrical polarization distribution.1 The unique focusing properties of CV beams facilitate novel applications of cylindrically polarized beams, including particle trapping,2 material processing,3 and surface-plasmon excitation.4 Fiber lasers have attracted signicant interest during the most recent two decades because of their high efciency, compact design, and exibility. CV beams can also be generated in optical bers. According to waveguide theory, the lowestorder transverse-electric (TE01 ) and transverse-magnetic (TM01 ) modes in step-index bers are characterized by cylindrical polarization5 (see Figure 2). To generate a CV beam, we only need to excite TE01 and TM01 modes in a few-mode ber. We present a very simple method to fabricate an all-ber laser that generates CV beams6, 7 (see Figure 3). It consist of a section of ytterbium (Yb) ber, a Sagnac loop mirror, a 980/1060nm wavelength division multiplexing coupler, ber collimators with operational wavelengths of 1060 and 1550nm, a section of SMF28 single-mode ber, and a 980nm laser diode. The Yb ber is used as gain medium, while the SMF-28 ber (highlighted in red in Figure 3) acts as few-mode ber for the 1060nm band. We obtained CV beams by exciting TE01 or TM01 modes in the

Figure 1. Polarization distribution of cylindrical vector (CV) beams. (a) Radially polarized. (b) Azimuthally polarized. (c) CV beam as a linear superposition of (a) and (b). Arrows denote polarization directions.

Figure 2. Polarization distribution of LP11 linearly polarized modes in step-index bers. TM, TE: Transverse magnetic, electric. HE: Hybrid electric.

Figure 3. Experimental setup for CV-beam generation. WDM: Wavelength division multiplexer. Yb: Ytterbium.

few-mode ber. This was implemented through adjusting the angles and transverse dimensions of the ber collimators. The radially and azimuthally polarized beams can be switched

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Figure 4. Intensity distribution of the CV beam.

Figure 6. Azimuthally polarized beam with different polarization directions. switchable, while the CV-beam ber laser is also very compact and easy to fabricate. We will further develop our all-ber laser for practical use. Author Information Lixin Xu, Rui Zheng, Chun Gu, Anting Wang, and Hai Ming University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, China
References 1. Q. Zhan, Cylindrical vector beams: from mathematical concepts to applications, Adv. Opt. Photon. 1, pp. 157, 2009. 2. Q. Zhan, Trapping metallic Rayleigh particles with radial polarization, Opt. Express 12 (15), pp. 33773382, 2004. 3. M. Meier, H. Glur, E. Wyss, Th. Feurer, and V. Romano, Laser microhole drilling using Q-switched radially and tangentially polarized beams, Proc. SPIE 6053, p. 605312, 2006. doi:10.1117/12.660454 4. A. Bouhelier, F. Ignatovich, A. Bruyant, C. Huang, G. Colas des Francs, J.-C. Weeber, A. Dereux, G. P. Wiederrecht, and L. Novotny, Surface plasmon interference excited by tightly focused laser beams, Opt. Lett. 32, pp. 25352537, 2007. 5. A. W. Snyder and J. D. Love, Optical Waveguide Theory, Chapman & Hall, 1983. 6. R. Zheng, C. Gu, A. Wang, L. Xu, and H. Ming, An all-ber laser generating cylindrical vector beam, Opt. Express 18 (10), pp. 1083410838, 2010. 7. L. Xu, R. Zhen, C. Gu, A. Wang, and H. Ming, An all-ber laser for cylindrical vector beam, Proc. Photon. Asia, pp. 78477841, 2010.

Figure 5. Radially polarized beam with different polarization directions. conveniently by simply applying twists or pressure to the fewmode ber. Figure 4 shows the doughnut-shaped intensity distribution of the CV beam (recorded on a CCD). To measure the polarization distribution of the laser beam, we inserted a tunable linear polarizer in the light path prior to the CCD recorder. In general, when a polarizer is placed in the light path after a CV beam has been generated, two lobes appear in the resulting intensity prole. Figures 5 and 6 illustrate the radial and azimuthal polarization states, respectively. White arrows indicate the polarization directions. Radial polarization is indicated by the dark line between the two lobes orthogonal to the polarization direction. The reverse occurs in the presence of azimuthal polarization (see Figure 6). In summary, we obtained CV beams from a new all-ber laser with two ber collimators as mode lter. Different CV-beam states, characterized by radial and azimuthal polarization, are

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