Optical vortices in the scattering field of magnetic domain holograms

Experimental investigations and theoretical-model analyses have been made o f the magnetooptic diffraction of light at ferrite garnet magnetic films wi th a banded domain structure which includes isolated magnetic grating defec ts in the form of "forks" and "breaks." An analysis of the magnetic grating structure and the light diffraction field shows that in terms of its actio n on laser radiation, a banded domain grating is similar to a computer-synt hesized phase hologram of an isolated pure screw-wavefront dislocation. It is shown that as a result of magnetooptic diffraction at a magnetic hologra m, optical vortices may be reconstructed with a helicoidal wavefront carryi ng the topological charge l = +/- 1,+/-2. (C) 1998 American Institute of Ph ysics. [S1063-7842(98)01012-5].