Flexible focal engineering of energy and transverse energy flow of tightly focused hybridly polarized vector vortex beam

Abstract Recently, vector beams with space-variant polarizations have attracted significant attention due to their wide range of applications, among which focal engineering stands out as one of the most representative and important applications. Here, we achieve flexible focal engineering based on the hybridly polarized vector vortex beam. The energy distribution can be manipulated, and the precise control of the tightly focused fields with various shapes at an extremely small scale holds significant application values in various fields such as optical machining, super-resolution imaging, and optical trapping. Moreover, the flexible transverse energy flow is also achieved, which is different from the longitudinal energy flow calculated by Poynting vector from the conventional uniform beam. The particles can be transported along certain paths or to fixed locations, indicating flexible applications in the area of optical manipulating and transporting. This work is of importance and value, as it provides a novel light source and enables various applications in the field of focal engineering.