No Arabic abstract
We reveal for the first time a direct relationship between the diffraction of optical beams and their carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). We experimentally demonstrate a novel phenomenon that the anisotropic diffraction can be induced by the OAM, predicted by us [Opt. Express, textbf{26}, 8084 (2018)], via the propagations of the elliptic beams with the OAM in linearly and both-linearly-and-nonlinearly isotropic media, respectively. In the former case, when its carrying OAM equals the so-called critical OAM, the spiraling elliptic Gaussian beam (fundamental eigenmode) is observed in the free space, where only the eigenmode with cylindrical-symmetry is supposed to exist for the beam without the OAM. In the latter case, the spiraling elliptic soliton, predicted by Desyatnikov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett, textbf{104}, 053902 (2010)], is observed to stably propagate in a cylindrical lead glass. The power-controllable rotation of such an elliptic beam is also experimentally demonstrated.
The discovery of artificial gauge fields, controlling the dynamics of uncharged particles that otherwise elude the influence of standard electric or magnetic fields, has revolutionized the field of quantum simulation. Hence, developing new techniques to induce those fields is essential to boost quantum simulation in photonic structures. Here, we experimentally demonstrate in a photonic lattice the generation of an artificial gauge field by modifying the input state, overcoming the need to modify the geometry along the evolution or imposing the presence of external fields. In particular, we show that an effective magnetic flux naturally appears when light beams carrying orbital angular momentum are injected into waveguide lattices with certain configurations. To demonstrate the existence of that flux, we measure the resulting Aharonov-Bohm caging effect. Therefore, we prove the possibility of switching on and off artificial gauge fields by changing the topological charge of the input state, paving the way to access different topological regimes in one single structure, which represents an important step forward for optical quantum simulation.
Light states evolution versus their fractional orbital angular momentum (OAM) has been analyzed in the conical diffraction process occurring through biaxial crystals. Experimental results are provided by a non-degenerate cascade of KGd(WO$_2$)$_4$ and Bi$_2$ZnOB$_2$O$_6$ biaxial crystals. The continuous $0to 1to 2$ $hbar$/photon increasing of the fractional OAM in passing through integer values was operated with the help of the spin-orbit coupling in the Bi$_2$ZnOB$_2$O$_6$ crystal. The phase of the state light and its vortices were visualized by interference patterns with a reference beam. The evolution of the fractional OAM value is accompanied by a continuous evolution of pairs of vortices with opposite signs and linked by a $-pi/+pi$ discontinuous phase line. The phase pattern evolution around half-integer OAM is observed to be continuous. In other cases, the evolution can be interrupted by the breaking of a $-pi/+pi$ discontinuous phase line and a new pair of vortices with opposite charges is born.
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.
We for the first time report the truncated diffraction with a triangular aperture of the SU(2) geometric modes and propose a method to detect the complicated orbital angular momentum (OAM) of an SU(2) wave-packet, to the best of our knowledge. As a special vortex beam, a nonplanar SU(2) mode carrying special intensity and OAM distributions brings exotic patterns in truncated diffraction lattice. A meshy structure is unveiled therein by adjusting the illuminated aperture in vicinity of the partial OAM regions, which can be elaborately used to evaluate the partial topological charge and OAM of an SU(2) wave-packet by counting the dark holes in the mesh. Moreover, through controlling the size and position of the aperture at the center region, the truncated triangular lattice can be close to the classical spot-array lattice for measuring the center OAM. These effects being fully validated by theoretical simulations greatly extend the versatility of topological structures detection of special beams.
Characterizing high-dimensional entangled states is of crucial importance in quantum information science and technology. Recent theoretical progress has been made to extend the Hardys paradox into a general scenario with multisetting multidimensional systems, which can surpass the bound limited by the original version. Hitherto, no experimental verification has been conducted to verify such a Hardys paradox, as most of previous experimental efforts were restricted to two-dimensional systems. Here, based on two-photon high-dimensional orbital angular momentum (OAM) entanglement, we report the first experiment to demonstrate the Hardys paradox for multiple settings and multiple outcomes. We demonstrate the paradox for two-setting higher-dimensional OAM subspaces up to d = 7, which reveals that the nonlocal events increase with the dimension. Furthermore, we showcase the nonlocality with an experimentally recording probability of 36.77% for five-setting three-dimensional OAM subspace via entanglement concentration, and thus showing a sharper contradiction between quantum mechanics and classical theory.