Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements for wavefront shaping in the visible domain: switchable helical modes generation

摘要: We report the realization of a Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical element [Z. Bomzon, G. Biener, V. Kleiner, and E. Hasman, Opt. Lett. \textbf{27}, 1141 (2002)] for wavefront shaping working in visible spectral domain, based on patterned liquid crystal technology. This device generates helical modes light with possibility electro-optically switching between opposite helicities by controlling handedness input circular polarization. By cascading this approach, fast among multiple can be achieved, potential applications to multi-state information encoding. The approach demonstrated here generalized other polarization-controlled devices shaping, such as switchable lenses, beam-splitters, holographic elements.