Quantitative detection of high-order Poincaré sphere beams and their polarization evolution

Abstract

The high-order Poincaré sphere (PS) introduces a mapping whereby any vector beams with spatially homogeneous ellipticity are represented by a specific point on the surface of the sphere. We propose the quantitative detection of high-order PS beams by introducing three sets of nonuniform polarization bases in the high-order Stokes parameters. Overall polarization detection is realized by directly separating and measuring the respective intensity of different nonuniform polarization bases based on S-plate. The polarization evolution of the PS beams on the high-order PS and between the conventional and the high-order PS are achieved by S-plate. The results provide new insights for the generation, evolution and detection of arbitrary beams on the high-order PS.