Shaping the focal field of radially/azimuthally polarized phase vortex with Zernike polynomials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to design pupil fields using Zernike polynomials to shape the focal field of radially or azimuthally polarized phase vortices, achieving precise control over focal spot properties.

Contribution

A novel approach using Zernike polynomials to design pupil fields for tailored focal spot shaping in high-NA optical systems.

Findings

Achieved a longitudinally polarized hollow spot with 12λ depth of focus and 0.14λ lateral resolution.

Generated 8 circularly polarized focal spots along the optical axis.

Demonstrated effective focal field shaping for advanced optical applications.

Abstract

The focal field properties of radially/azimuthally polarized Zernike polynomials are studied. A method to design the pupil field in order to shape the focal field of radially or azimuthally polarized phase vortex is introduced. With this method, we are able to obtain a pupil field to achieve a longitudinally polarized hollow spot with a depth of focus up to $12\lambda$ and $0.14\lambda$ lateral resolution for a optical system with numerical aperture 0.99; A pupil field to generate 8 circularly polarized focal spots along the optical axis is also obtained with this method.