Illuminated Q-plate  thumbnail
Illuminated Q-plate

A q-plate is illuminated by white light from behind and the transmitted light is recorded on camera after passing polarizer. Q-plates are liquid-crystal based optical elements that can produce spatially variant polarization patterns at transverse plane of a laser beam. This image was captured by Behzad Khajavi at Optics lab 105 at Colgate University. 

—Behzad Khajavi, Colgate University