Vortex energy flow in the tight focus of a non-vortex field with circular polarization

Abstract

Using Richards-Wolf formulas, we show that an axisymmetric circularly polarized vortex-free field can be focused into a sharp subwavelength focal spot, around which there is a region where the light energy flow propagates along a spiral. This effect can be explained by the conversion of the spin angular momentum of the circularly polarized field into the orbital angular momentum near the focus, although the on-axis orbital angular momentum remains zero. It is also shown that a linearly polarized optical vortex with topological charge 2 forms near the focal plane an on-axis reverse energy flow (defined by the negative longitudinal component of the Poynting vector) whose amplitude is comparable with the direct energy flow.