Nondiffracting periodically space-variant polarization beams with subwavelength gratings

A class of propagation-invariant vector fields with uniform intensity and periodically space-varying polarization is presented. The beams were formed using computer-generated space-variant subwavelength gratings. A theoretical analysis as well as experimental results using gratings designed for CO2 laser radiation at a wavelength of 10.6 μm is discussed.