Description and reconstruction of typical structured light beams with vector spherical wave functions

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Electromagnetics
• Computational Physics

Background:

• The generalized Lorenz-Mie theory (GLMT) rigorously analyzes light-particle interactions.
• Accurate description of light beams, particularly structured ones, is essential for GLMT applications.
• Vector spherical wave functions (VSWFs) are key to describing light beam behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically derive beam shape coefficients (BSCs) for typical structured light beams.
• To reconstruct these structured light beams using VSWFs.
• To validate the accuracy of the reconstruction method by comparing with original beams.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the angular spectrum decomposition method to derive BSCs.
• Employing VSWFs for the reconstruction of structured light beams.
• Systematic derivation and comparison of beam profiles.

Main Results:

• Successful derivation of BSCs for fundamental Gaussian, Hermite-Gaussian, Laguerre-Gaussian, Bessel, and Airy beams.
• Accurate reconstruction of these structured light beams using VSWFs.
• Quantitative comparison demonstrating high fidelity between reconstructed and original beams.

Conclusions:

• The derived BSCs and VSWF reconstruction method provide a robust framework for analyzing structured light beams.
• This work is valuable for advancing studies on light-structured particle interactions under GLMT.
• The findings facilitate more precise modeling in optical physics and nanophotonics.