A simple generation of tunable inhomogeneously polarized beam by half-wave plate

Polarization which has attracted much attention plays an important role in many optical systems, and vector beam generation is very desirable. In this paper, a very simple method for generating tunable inhomogeneously polarized beam is proposed. Polarizing film is employed to construct conic polarization converter that can convert incident beam into inhomogeneously polarized vector beam. Two half-wave plates are put in light path, and by adjusting the angle between the fast axes of the two half-wavelength plates, the polarization distribution can be altered conveniently. Experiments have been made successfully to show that this kind of method is very simple and valid.