An interference scheme for generating inhomogeneously polarized laser radiation using a spatial light modulator

An optical system for converting linearly polarized laser beams into cylindrical vector beams is developed and experimentally investigated. The scheme is based on the coherent addition of mode beams using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The simplicity and versatility of the optical setup is achieved through the use of different sections in the area of the spatial light modulator for the simultaneous generation of two spatially separated given mode beams. Each of the beams then propagates in one of the arms of the interferometer and undergoes the necessary polarization-phase transformations to obtain a cylindrical vector beam after the addition of mode beams.