Nevertheless, we calculated the average divergence
angle for the measured and calculated intensity
distributions (Fig 11.). Both, the measured and
calculated angles show a nearly linear dependency
regarding to the topological charge. Moreover, the
data points are grouped by modulation depth m and
the progression between the points of the groups is
discontinuous. In addition, each group show a
different slope depending on the modulation depth.
This shows the influence of the modulation depth on
the divergence of the propagating fields, and it must
be considered for the design of micro SPPs for a
specific application. Concluding, the propagating
fields diverge differently depending on the
topological charge. In addition to this, the modulation
depth also got an influence on the divergence angle.
In order to find a general rule for the radii and the
divergence of the OAM beams as a function of the
topological charge, the further generation and
analysis of a large number of high-quality SPPs is
necessary. In further investigations, also the influence
of the relationship between feature size and design
wavelength should be analysed in more detail.
4 CONCLUSIONS
We show the results of our investigations on the
optical characterization of laser fabricated micro
SPPs. Therefore, we used two measurement
configurations. The measured results were verified by
numerical calculations of the diffraction images using
the Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction integral. The
captured interferograms show the equality of the
modulation depth and number of phase jumps, which
act on the topological charge in the same way.
Moreover, we captured the diffraction images with a
reduced beam radius to supress the interference
between the modulated and unmodulated proportion
of the propagating field. It could be shown that the
calculation in consideration of the geometric
properties led to equal diffraction pattern compared to
the measured one. This enables us to identify
irregularities and asymmetries within the structures
and their optical effect.
Simultaneous, we calculated the diffraction
images for ideal spiral phase distributions to
determine the course of the ideal maximum and root
mean square radius of the ring-shaped intensity
distributions. The comparison of the maximum radii
shows a good fit in course but a small offset of the
measured values, due to a small misalignment of the
SPPs. Moreover, we determined the divergence
angles of the OAM beams, as well as the influence of
the topological charge on their divergence.
Surprisingly, the modulation depth also got an
influence on the divergence of the propagating fields.
However, it must be considered that the
measurements and calculations were carried out on
micro-optics with feature sizes close to the
wavelength range. Moreover, the range of
measurement is somewhat between the near and far
field. Due to this, the far field approximation is not
valid. In further investigations, the region of interest
therefore should be increased. This may connect our
experimental data to the far field approximation.
Finally, the generation process and quality of the
micro spiral phase plates must be improved. In
particular, the precise control of the laser pulse energy
and therefor the ablation depth per pulse can raise the
quality of the SPPs significantly. As we have shown,
the depth of the structures was not exactly equal to the
required equivalent targeted phase shift and the slopes
and edges within the structure increased the distortion
within the diffraction image. Regarding to this, we
currently work on an improved process which will
allow us to generate continuous surfaces with
arbitrary geometry with highest possible quality.
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the referees for their
careful reading the manuscript and their valuable
comments and suggestions. Furthermore, we
thankfully acknowledge the financial support from
the free state of saxony.
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