POLARIZATION CONVERTER OF BIDIRECTIONAL CYLINDRICAL SYMMETRY AND CARTESIAN-CYLINDRICAL POLARIZATION CONVERSION METHOD

摘要

The present invention relates to a converter (7) for converting the spatial distribution of bidirectional Cartesian-cylindrical polarization states, comprising a radial polarization converter (3) capable of receiving a linearly polarized, spatially uniform, polarization distribution beam in order to convert it into a beam having a radial or azimuthal distribution of polarization states about an axis of symmetry, and optical means (6) for compensating for the phase shift induced by said radial polarization converter (3), said optical compensating means (6) being capable of introducing a spatially uniform phase shift so as to compensate for the phase shift introduced by said radial polarization converter (3).