Generation of radially and azimuthally polarized light by achromatic meniscus axicon

We present a new method for converting circularly polarized light into radially or azimuthally polarized light by using an achromatic meniscus axicon and two additional halfwave retarders. The rotationally symmetric meniscus axicon, consisting of a pair of convex and concave conical surfaces with the same apex angle, exploits the double total internal reflections when light passes through it to produce π/2 phase retardation with an azimuth-variant polarization orientation. The properties of highly achromatic retardation, which provide excellent stability of retardation against temperature variation for the meniscus axicon, is numerically demonstrated.