Vectorial acousto-optic Raman-Nath diffraction effect of chiral liquid media

The acousto-optic Raman-Nath (RN) diffraction effects of vector beams diffracted by the chiral ultrasonic grating are demonstrated experimentally and theoretically. The deviation of left- and right-handed circularly polarized components in higher-order diffraction light leads to the rearrangement of their polarization states and intensity due to the different refractive indices of left- and right-hand circularly polarized lights. When the difference between the refractive indices for left- and right-hand circular polarizations is small, linear polarization components of the higher-order diffraction light with the input localized linearly polarized vector optical field rotate compared to the zero-order diffraction light. Novel, to the best of our knowledge, intensity distributions of linear polarization components appear for the input hybridly polarized vector beam.