Polarization Conversion in Uniaxial Crystals

When a linearly polarized beam is focused and then propagated through a uniaxial crystal, even when along the optic axis, complicated conversions may take place between different polarization components. Such an effect can be utilized for e.g. generation of optical vortices. Taking calcite crystal as an example, the conversion of polarization in uniaxial crystals is demonstrated in VirtualLab Fusion. The optical vortices generated within the process are visualized.