Enabling polarization-dependent topological state switching of perfect vortex beams with a holographic device

Perfect scalar vortex beams (PSVBs) carrying topological phase, and perfect vector vortex beams (PVVBs) characterized by both topological phase and topological polarization, serve as crucial carriers of optical topological characteristics, offering significant potential in diverse fields such as optical information encoding, quantum entanglement manipulation, and super-resolution microscopy. This study reports a polarization-dependent topological state switching device, which is developed by recording a composite polarization hologram in a photo-anisotropic medium via interference exposure, based on the faithful and null reconstruction effects in polarization holography. Responsive to the incident light's polarization, the device selectively outputs PSVBs under circularly polarized illumination and PVVBs under linearly polarized illumination, thereby achieving on-demand switching of topological states. This work provides a practical approach for the dynamic control of optical field topological states, and the developed device holds considerable promise for applications in angular momentum manipulation, topological information processing, and precision measurement and sensing.