Self-referenced interferometry for single-shot detection of vector-vortex beams

Vector-vortex (VV) beams are of significant interest for various applications. There have been substantial efforts toward developing a fast and efficient method for the characterization of generated VV beams which is crucial for their usage. Polarimetric approaches are commonly used to identify unknown VV beams but require multiple intensity recordings. This paper demonstrates a technique to detect VV beams and identify their parameters using the concept of self-referenced interferometry. The approach uses a single recorded interferogram to determine the beam parameters that allow rapid detection. The method even enables detection of VV beams having high-order optical vortices.