Spiral phase plate with multiple singularity centers

Abstract

We investigate a multispiral phase plate (MSPP) with multiple centers of phase singularity arbitrarily located in the MSPP plane. Equations to describe the topological charge of an optical vortex in the initial plane immediately behind the MSPP and orbital angular momentum (OAM) normalized relative to the beam power are derived. The topological charge in the initial plane is found as a sum of the topological charges of all singularities if their centers are located inside a finite-radius circular aperture. If the phase singularity centers are partially located on the boundary of a circular diaphragm limiting the MSPP, the total topological charge is found as the sum of all singularities divided by 2. Total OAM that the vortex carries depends on the location of the singularity centers: the farther from the center of the plate the singularity center is located, the smaller is its contribution to the OAM. If all singularity centers are located on the boundary of the diaphragm limiting MSPP, then the OAM of the vortex beam equals zero, although in this case the topological charge of the beam is nonzero.