Martínez Matos, ÓscarVaveliuk, PabloMoraes, Fernando Jorge SampaioFumeron, SebastienCalvo Padilla, María Luisa2023-06-202023-06-202010-061084-752910.1364/JOSAA.27.001466https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/44156© 2010 Optical Society of America. P. V. and F. M. acknowledge financial support from CNPq (Brazilian federal grant agency). The partial financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science, under project TEC2008-04105is acknowledged.A q-plate is a stratified medium composed of a uniaxial nematic liquid crystal with an inhomogeneous orientation of the optical axis possessing a topological charge q, which looks promising as a switching device. This work reports an approach to diagonalizing the dielectric tensor in q-plates, giving a detailed study of nontrivial tensor coordinate transformations. The relationship between the diagonal dielectric tensor and the topological charge of the plate is established. From that, the dielectric tensor for a given q-plate can be explicitly calculated in a convenient frame, and hence the field propagation equations can be derived. These studies establish a theoretical basis that could further deepen the research on these particular structures for nonconventional manipulation of the light.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.27.001466http://www.opticsinfobase.org/open access535Laser-BeamsPhaseManipulationPropagationLightÓptica (Física)2209.19 Óptica Física