Tailorable polygon-like beams generated by modified spiral petal-like zone plates

Abstract A modified spiral petal-like zone plate (MSPZP) is proposed to generate the polygon-like beam with the tailorable shape, size and topological charge. The size and shape of the polygon-like beam are adjustalbe by the frequency N and the exponent m, whose product represents the number of sides of the polygon. Moreover, the size of the polygon-like beam can be also tailorable by the original radius r0. When the exponent m is equal to 2, the distances between the vertices of the polygon-like beams and the central point are equal to r0. In addition, the topological charges of the polygon-like beam can be identified by the number of fringes generated by the corresponding interference phases of MSPZPs. The method of constructing the MSPZP is illustrated. Furthermore, it is also proved in the simulations and experiments that the tailorable polygon-like beam can be generated by the MSPZP. The proposed zone plates are applicable to trap particles along the different polygon-like curves and have potential applications in optical communication.