Our optical vortex phase plate is fabricated directly on top of an optical fiber. This makes it extremely easy to use. No need for optical alignment or bulky free-space optics. Simply connect the fiber to your laser of choice and the output is a vortex beam!
An optical vortex – also known as twisted light – is a special type of beam that carries orbital angular momentum. The phase of such beam changes with the azimuthal angle. As a result, in the center of a beam a phase singularity appears. The singularity leads to a characteristic donut-shape beam with a zero intensity on the axis. The two main features of the beam, angular momentum and donut shape, result in two types of applications. Angular momentum is used in telecommunications to transmit information or in optical trapping to rotate microparticles. Zero intensity at the axis is used in STED microscopy to achieve subdiffraction imaging. Typically, vortex beam is created using either bulky and expensive spiral phase plate or an even bulkier optical setup with a spatial light modulator. Instead, our approach is to use nanoimprint technology to fabricate spiral phase plate directly on the edge of the fiber.
Applications of optical vortex:
- STED microscopy
- Telecommunication
- Optical trapping
Advantages of our vortex phase plate:
- No optical alignment is necessary
- Stability and reproducibility
- Ease of integration
- Small size
Download vortex phase plate specification
Contact us to purchase fiber vortex phase plate or to customize them for your application.