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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Meta-q-plate for complex beam shaping
Wei Ji1, Chun-Hong Lee2, Peng Chen1
1National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
Abstract:
Optical beam shaping plays a key role in optics and photonics. In this work, meta-q-plate featured by arbitrarily space-variant optical axes is proposed and demonstrated via liquid crystal photoalignment based on a polarization-sensitive alignment agent and a dynamic micro-lithography system. Meta-q-plates with multiple-, azimuthally/radially variant topological charges and initial azimuthal angles are fabricated. Accordingly, complex beams with elliptical, asymmetrical, multi-ringed and hurricane transverse profiles are generated, making the manipulation of optical vortex up to an unprecedented flexibility. The evolution, handedness and Michelson interferogram of the hurricane one are theoretically analysed and experimentally verified. The design facilitates the manipulation of polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of light in a point-to-point manner. The realization of meta-q-plate drastically enhances the capability of beam shaping and may pave a bright way towards optical manipulations, OAM based informatics, quantum optics and other fields.
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