Multipole theory for tight focusing of polarized light, including radially polarized and other special cases.

A multipole expansion, based on spherical harmonics, provides an efficient method for calculating the field in the focal region of a lens for radially polarized illumination, or other illumination polarization and phase distributions, including vortex beams. The multipole approach also has the benefit of providing a simple measure of the purity of the longitudinal field mode. The method is also convenient for calculation of fields scattered by particles and calculation of optical trapping forces.