Cylindrical Vector Laser Beam Generated by the Use of a Photonic Crystal Mirror

Abstract

A concentrically patterned photonic crystal mirror with polarization selectivity fabricated by the autocloning technique was used for the generation of radially and azimuthally polarized beams from an Nd:YAG laser cavity. By adopting the photonic crystal mirror as the output coupler of the cavity, both radially and azimuthally polarized beams were obtained with similar output power as that of an unpolarized beam generated by a conventional, non-polarization-selective output coupler.