In order to study the method of optical vortex generation by cascaded spiral phase plates, theoretical analysis, simulations and experimental demonstration of this method are presented. Firstly, theory of optical vortex generation by cascaded spiral phase plates is analyzed. Secondly, an optical vortex generation setup is built, then two experimental groups of optical vortex generation is proposed and generation with single spiral phase plate is set as a control group. On this basis, correlation model is set up, then relative intensity and beam radius with propagation distance are simulated. Simulated graphs of relative intensity and optical radius with propagation distance are plotted and the related rate of change is calculated, initially proving the advantages of cascaded spiral phase plates. Finally, law of relative intensity and optical radius changing of optical vortex with topological charges 5 is studied based on experimental groups and control group, verifying the advantages of optical vortex generation, i.e., law of relative intensity and optical radius changing by cascaded spiral phase plates. By contrast of experimental results, the best configuration of cascaded spiral phase plates is settled.

Date Published: 12 December 2018
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 10847, Optical Precision Manufacturing, Testing, and Applications, 1084703 (12 December 2018); doi: 10.1117/12.2502766

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10847:
Optical Precision Manufacturing, Testing, and Applications
John McBride; JiuBin Tan; Sen Han; Xuejun Zhang, Editor(s)