Method for evaluating the polarization performance of cylindrical vector polarized beams

Cylindrical vector polarized (CVP) beams are widely used in many applications due to their special polarized distribution and highly focused properties. It is crucial to evaluate the polarization performance of CVP beams. This paper proposes several polarization parameters for comprehensively evaluating the overall polarization performance and spatial polarization symmetry of CVP beams. To verify this method, several different CVP beams are simulated, and the polarization performance of these beams are indicated. In addition, the trapping models are built to compare trapping capacities of the beams with different polarization performance. The results indicate that the ideal CVP beams demonstrated a higher trapping force than the non-ideal ones, and the trapping force was sensitive to the spatial polarization symmetry of the beams. This evaluation method plays an important role in applications that are susceptible to the polarization performance of the beams.