Analysis of Stokes singularities using a lateral shear interferometer

Abstract

Polarization and Poincaré singularities in the optical fields can be studied by analyzing the phase singularities of mathematically constructed Stokes vector fields. The wider applicability of the Stokes construction is found by exploring the generation and detection methods for various types of Stokes singularities and their analysis. Here, we detect and analyze all forms of the Stokes singularities through lateral shear interferometry. Specifically, the projections of a Stokes singularity on three pairs of orthogonal polarization basis states, defined by the eigen polarization states of Pauli’s matrices, are analyzed through unique fork patterns in the shearogram pairs. These interference patterns also provide the topological indices of the singularities. Such a self-referencing interferometric method also helps to remove the degeneracy in the Stokes index and polarization. Through both, simulations and experiments, we have analyzed specific beams represented by higher order Poincaré sphere and hybrid order Poincaré sphere topological constructs.