Purity of vector vortex beams through a birefringent amplifier

TL;DR

This paper investigates how amplification affects the purity of vector vortex beams, demonstrating that it is possible to enhance their purity during amplification, which is crucial for high-power applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel toolbox for studying VV beam amplification and shows that purity can be improved during amplification in birefringent gain media.

Findings

Purity of VV beams can be enhanced during amplification.

A general toolbox for VV beam analysis is developed.

High-brightness VV beams are feasible for high-power applications.

Abstract

Creating high-quality vector vortex (VV) beams is possible with a myriad of techniques at low power, and while a few studies have produced such beams at high-power, none have considered the impact of amplification on the vector purity. Here we employ novel tools to study the amplification of VV beams, and in particular the purity of such modes. We outline a general toolbox for such investigations and demonstrate its use in the general case of VV beams through a birefringent gain medium. Intriguingly, we show that it is possible to enhance the purity of such beams during amplification, paving the way for high-brightness VV beams, a requirement for their use in high-power applications such as laser materials processing.