Diffraction characteristics of optical and polarization vortices generated by an axially-symmetric polarizer

We previously developed an achromatic method for the generation of the white-light optical and polarization vortices using axially-symmetric polarizer (ASP). In the present presentation, we report the experimental study on the Fresnel diffraction characteristics of the vortices generated by ASP. The diffraction pattern of the optical vortex has a dark core whose diameter is not scaled by the beam diameter. This behavior is described by the numerical simulation for a point-like vortex at ASP. We also studied the polarization change of a radially polarized light from ASP owing to the diffraction. This change can be explained by the decomposition of the radially polarized light into a plane wave and a point-like optical vortex which are respectively circularly-polarized with opposite handedness.