Abstract

Left and right circularly polarized transverse electromagnetic waves propagate at slightly different speeds in a magnetic material leading to a polarization rotation by an amount proportional to the projection of the magnetic field along the direction of the wave propagation. We show how this magneto-optical effect can serve as a vectorial polarization shaper if the input mode is either a radially-polarized or an azimuthally-polarized Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) mode. The specific polarization map of the output field can be achieved by choosing appropriately the magnetic material and/or its geometry. We show further that when the LG beam waist is comparable to the wavelength (i.e. 𝑤0≈𝜆) the fields are no longer purely transverse but acquire an additional longitudinal (axial) component. We demonstrate how this modifies the polarization texturing.