Polarization properties of Ince-Gaussian laser beams.

A consistent theoretical description of the polarization properties of Ince-Gauss (IG) laser beams is provided by constructing paraxial IG solutions to Maxwell equations. We confirm this description experimentally by recording both the dominant and cross-polarization components. Moreover, by experimentally confirming the evolution of the dominant and cross-polarization components as functions of ellipticity parameters, our paper extends further support to a unified treatment of the three (Laguerre-Gauss, Hermite-Gauss, and IG) families of paraxial laser beams.