Nanostructured silica spin–orbit optics for modal vortex beam shaping

Modality is a generic concept of wave-optics at the basis of optical information and communications. One of the challenges of photonics technologies based on optical orbital angular momentum consists in the production of a modal content for both the azimuthal and radial degrees of freedom. This basically requires shaping the complex amplitude of an incident light beam, which is usually made up from adaptive spatial light modulators or bespoke devices. Here, we report on the experimental attempt of a recent theoretical proposal [Opt. Lett. 42, 1966 (2017)] toward the production of various optical vortex modes of the Laguerre–Gaussian type relying on the spin–orbit interaction of light. This is done in the visible domain from optical elements made out of silica glass. The idea consists in exploiting the combined effects of azimuthally-varying geometric phase with that of radially-varying propagation features. The proposed approach can be readily extended to any wavelength as well as to other families of optical modes, although some dynamic phase problems remain to be solved to make it a turnkey technology.