No Arabic abstract
The existing methods for measuring the orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) spectrum suffer from issues such as poor efficiency, strict interferometric stability requirements, and too much loss. Furthermore, most techniques inevitably discard part of the field and measure only a post-selected portion of the true spectrum. Here, we propose and demonstrate an interferometric technique for measuring the true OAM spectrum of optical fields in a single-shot manner. Our technique directly encodes the OAM-spectrum information in the azimuthal intensity profile of the output interferogram. In the absence of noise, the spectrum can be fully decoded using a single acquisition of the output interferogram, and, in the presence of noise, acquisition of two suitable interferograms is sufficient for the purpose. As an important application of our technique, we demonstrate measurements of the angular Schmidt spectrum of the entangled photons produced by parametric down-conversion and report a broad spectrum with the angular Schmidt number 82.1.
Manipulation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light is essential in OAM-based optical systems. Especially, OAM divider, which can convert the incoming OAM mode into one or several new smaller modes in proportion at different spatial paths, is very useful in OAM-based optical networks. However, this useful tool was never reported yet. For the first time, we put forward a passive OAM divider based on coordinate transformation. The device consists of a Cartesian to log-polar coordinate converter and an inverse converter. The first converter converts the OAM light into a rectangular-shaped plane light with a transverse phase gradient. And the second converter converts the plane light into multiple diffracted light. The OAM of zeroth-order diffracted light is the product of the input OAM and the scaling parameter. The residual light is output from other diffracted orders. Furthermore, we extend the scheme to realize equal N-dividing of OAM and arbitrary dividing of OAM. The ability of dividing OAM shows huge potential for OAM-based classical and quantum information processing.
Light beams carrying orbital angular momentum are key resources in modern photonics. In many applications, the ability of measuring the complex spectrum of structured light beams in terms of these fundamental modes is crucial. Here we propose and experimentally validate a simple method that achieves this goal by digital analysis of the interference pattern formed by the light beam and a reference field. Our approach allows one to characterize the beam radial distribution also, hence retrieving the entire information contained in the optical field. Setup simplicity and reduced number of measurements could make this approach practical and convenient for the characterization of structured light fields.
The axis tilt of light beam in optical system would introduce the dispersion of orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum. To deal with it, a two-step method is proposed and demonstrated. First, the tilt angle of optical axis is identified with a deduced relation between the tilt angle and the variation of OAM topological charges with different reference axes, which is obtained with the help of a charge coupled device (CCD) camera. In our experiments, the precision of measured tilt angle is about 10-4rad with OAM orders of -3~3. Using the measured angle value, the additional phase delay due to axis tilt can be calculated so that the dispersion of OAM spectrum can be corrected with a simple formula while the optical axis is not aligned. The experimental results indicate that the original OAM spectrum has been successfully extracted for not only the pure OAM state but also the superposed OAM states.
Electron vortex beams have been predicted to enable atomic scale magnetic information measurement, via transfer of orbital angular momentum. Research so far has focussed on developing production techniques and applications of these beams. However, methods to measure the outgoing orbital angular momentum distribution are also a crucial requirement towards this goal. Here, we use a method to obtain the orbital angular momentum decomposition of an electron beam, using a multi-pinhole interferometer. We demonstrate both its ability to accurately measure orbital angular momentum distribution, and its experimental limitations when used in a transmission electron microscope.
The existing techniques for measuring high-dimensional pure states of light in the orbital angular momentum (OAM) basis either involve a large number of single-pixel data acquisitions and substantial postselection errors that increase with dimensionality, or involve substantial loss, or require interference with a reference beam of known phase. Here, we propose an interferometric technique that can measure an unknown pure state using only nine multipixel image acquisitions without involving postselection, loss, or a separate reference beam. The technique essentially measures two complex correlation functions of the input field and then employs a recursive postprocessing algorithm to infer the state. We experimentally demonstrate the technique for pure states up to dimensionality of 25, reporting a mean fidelity greater than 90 % up to 11 dimensions. Our technique can significantly improve the performance of OAM-based information processing applications.