Excitation of a single hollow waveguide mode using inhomogeneous anisotropic subwavelength structures.

We propose and analyze a general approach for coupling a free space uniformly polarized beam to a desired hollow waveguide mode, thus enabling a single mode operation. The required spatial polarization state manipulation is achieved by use of inhomogeneous anisotropic subwavelength structures. Demonstration is obtained by coupling a linearly polarized CO(2) laser beam at a wavelength of 10.6 mum to the TE(01), TM(01), EH(11), EH(21), and EH(31) modes of a 300 mum diameter dielectric-coated hollow metallic waveguide. Full polarization and intensity analysis of the beam at the waveguide's inlet and outlet ports indicates a high coupling efficiency to a single waveguide mode. Finally, shaping the waveguide mode to a nearly diffraction limited linearly polarized beam and to a radially polarized vectorial vortex are also demonstrated.

[1]  G. Biener,et al.  Vectorial vortex mode transformation for a hollow waveguide using Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements. , 2006, Optics letters.

[2]  Erez Hasman,et al.  Manipulation of the Pancharatnam phase in vectorial vortices. , 2006, Optics express.

[3]  C. Codemard,et al.  Erbium-ytterbium co-doped hollow optical fibre laser , 2006 .

[4]  K. Webb,et al.  Demonstration of mode conversion in an irregular waveguide. , 2006, Optics letters.

[5]  Erez Hasman,et al.  Rotating vectorial vortices produced by space-variant subwavelength gratings. , 2005, Optics letters.

[6]  Roshan George,et al.  Infrared transmissive, hollow plastic waveguides with inner Ag-Agl coatings. , 2005, Applied optics.

[7]  Zhengling Wang,et al.  Atomic (or molecular) guiding using a blue-detuned doughnut mode in a hollow metallic waveguide. , 2005, Optics express.

[8]  G. Biener,et al.  Spiral phase elements obtained by use of discrete space-variant subwavelength gratings , 2005 .

[9]  Jeffrey A. Davis,et al.  Polarization-multiplexed diffractive optical elements with liquid-crystal displays. , 2005, Applied optics.

[10]  W. Mohammed,et al.  Selective excitation of the TE/sub 01/ mode in hollow-glass waveguide using a subwavelength grating , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[11]  Erez Hasman,et al.  Propagation-invariant vectorial Bessel beams obtained by use of quantized Pancharatnam-Berry phase optical elements. , 2004, Optics letters.

[12]  Steven G. Johnson,et al.  Dispersion tailoring and compensation by modal interactions in OmniGuide fibers. , 2003, Optics express.

[13]  J. Joannopoulos,et al.  Wavelength-scalable hollow optical fibres with large photonic bandgaps for CO2 laser transmission , 2002, Nature.

[14]  Alexander Argyros,et al.  Elimination of polarization degeneracy in round waveguides. , 2002, Optics express.

[15]  M Ibanescu,et al.  Low-loss asymptotically single-mode propagation in large-core OmniGuide fibers. , 2001, Optics express.

[16]  Asher A. Friesem,et al.  The formation of laser beams with pure azimuthal or radial polarization , 2000 .

[17]  V. Niziev,et al.  Influence of beam polarization on laser cutting efficiency , 1999 .

[18]  Cornell,et al.  Laser-guided atoms in hollow-core optical fibers. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[19]  Ashish M. Vengsarkar,et al.  Optical fiber-based dispersion compensation using higher order modes near cutoff , 1994 .

[20]  S C Tidwell,et al.  Efficient radially polarized laser beam generation with a double interferometer. , 1993, Applied optics.

[21]  A. Friesem,et al.  Heterostructure multilevel binary optics. , 1991, Optics letters.

[22]  M. Miyagi,et al.  Design theory of dielectric-coated circular metallic waveguides for infrared transmission , 1984 .

[23]  Michel E. Marhic,et al.  Low‐order TE0q operation of a CO2 laser for transmission through circular metallic waveguides , 1981 .

[24]  E. Marcatili,et al.  Hollow metallic and dielectric waveguides for long distance optical transmission and lasers , 1964 .

[25]  E. Snitzer Cylindrical Dielectric Waveguide Modes , 1961 .

[26]  Lord Rayleigh F.R.S. XVIII. On the passage of electric waves through tubes, or the vibrations of dielectric cylinders , 1897 .

[27]  M. Ibanescu,et al.  Surface-emitting fiber lasers. , 2006, Optics express.

[28]  G. Biener,et al.  Chapter 4 – Space-variant polarization manipulation , 2005 .

[29]  Asher A. Friesem,et al.  Analytic optimization for holographic optical elements , 1989 .