A converter of circularly polarized laser beams into cylindrical vector beams based on anisotropic crystals

An optical system for converting circularly polarized laser beams into cylindrical vector beams on the basis of anisotropic crystals has been developed. Polarization properties and the structure of the resulting beams have been experimentally characterized. The analysis has revealed differences in the azimuthal and radial polarization of Gaussian modes and Bessel beams. Ranges of variation of the optical system parameters to form different types of polarizations with different amplitude and phase distributions have been identified.