Free-space propagation of radially and azimuthally polarized terahertz Bessel-Gauss beams

Radially polarized Bessel-Gauss beams have interesting properties like smaller spot sizes in the focus as compared to linearly polarized beams, and longitudinal field components. These properties have been studied for
visible and near-infrared beams. In the THz range, radially polarized beams have been studied as plasmonically guided modes on metal wires, so called Sommerfeld modes. Recently a first experiment on free space
propagation of radially polarized beams, generated via velocity mismatched optical rectification in (100)-oriented ZnTe, was reported. Here we present microstructured emitters for radially and azimuthally polarized
beams, study for the first time the divergence of the beams behind the emitter and record transverse and longitudinal components of the beams in the focus.