Directly measuring mode purity of single component in superposed optical vortices

Abstract

Mode purity is an important reference for the quality of the optical vortex. In this work, we propose a self-interference method to directly measure single component in superposed optical vortices based on phase-shifting technology. This method has excellent flexibility and robustness, which can be applied to a variety of occasions and harsh conditions. Careful alignment and optimized error analysis allow us to generate and measure single component with mode purity as high as 99.997%.