Refractive-diffractive dispersion compensation for optical vortex beams with ultrashort pulse durations

Toward high-energy few-cycle optical vortices with minimized topological charge dispersion

A simple approach to generate high-energy few-cycle optical vortices with minimized topological charge dispersion is introduced. By means of numerical simulations, it is shown that, by leveraging the intrinsic properties of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), clean transfer of topological charge from a high-energy narrowband pump pulse to a broadband idler is feasible under certain particular conditions, enabling the generation of high-energy few-cycle vortex pulses with extremely low topological charge dispersion.

Modern Types of Axicons: New Functions and Applications

Axicon is a versatile optical element for forming a zero-order Bessel beam, including high-power laser radiation schemes. Nevertheless, it has drawbacks such as the produced beam's parameters being dependent on a particular element, the output beam's intensity distribution being dependent on the quality of element manufacturing, and uneven axial intensity distribution. To address these issues, extensive research has been undertaken to develop nondiffracting beams using a variety of advanced techniques. We looked at four different and special approaches for creating nondiffracting beams in this article. Diffractive axicons, meta-axicons-flat optics, spatial light modulators, and photonic integrated circuit-based axicons are among these approaches. Lately, there has been noteworthy curiosity in reducing the thickness and weight of axicons by exploiting diffraction. Meta-axicons, which are ultrathin flat optical elements made up of metasurfaces built up of arrays of subwavelength optical antennas, are one way to address such needs. In addition, when compared to their traditional refractive and diffractive equivalents, meta-axicons have a number of distinguishing advantages, including aberration correction, active tunability, and semi-transparency. This paper is not intended to be a critique of any method. We have outlined the most recent advancements in this field and let readers determine which approach best meets their needs based on the ease of fabrication and utilization. Moreover, one section is devoted to applications of axicons utilized as sensors of optical properties of devices and elements as well as singular beams states and wavefront features.

Recent Advances in Generation and Detection of Orbital Angular Momentum Optical Beams-A Review

Herein, we have discussed three major methods which have been generally employed for the generation of optical beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM). These methods include the practice of diffractive optics elements (DOEs), metasurfaces (MSs), and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the production of in-plane and out-of-plane OAM. This topic has been significantly evolved as a result; these three methods have been further implemented efficiently by different novel approaches which are discussed as well. Furthermore, development in the OAM detection techniques has also been presented. We have tried our best to bring novel and up-to-date information to the readers on this interesting and widely investigated topic.

Ultrashort Vortex Pulses with Controlled Spectral Gouy Rotation

Recently, the spatio-spectral propagation dynamic of ultrashort-pulsed vortex beams was demonstrated by 2D mapping of spectral moments. The rotation of characteristic anomalies, so-called “spectral eyes”, was explained by wavelength-dependent Gouy phase shift. Controlling of this spectral rotation is essential for specific applications, e.g., communication and processing. Here, we report on advanced concepts for spectral rotational control and related first-proof-of-principle experiments. The speed of rotation of spectral eyes during propagation is shown to be essentially determined by angular and spectral parameters. The performance of fixed diffractive optical elements (DOE) and programmable liquid-crystal-on silicon spatial light modulators (LCoS-SLMs) that act as spiral phase gratings (SPG) or spiral phase plates (SPP) is compared. The approach is extended to radially chirped SPGs inducing axially variable angular velocity. The generation of time-dependent orbital angular momentum (self-torque) by superimposing multiple vortex pulses is proposed.

Refractive twisted microaxicons

Complex-shaped light fields with specially designed intensity, phase, and polarization distributions are highly demanded for various applications including optical tweezers, laser material processing, and lithography. Here, we propose a novel (to the best of our knowledge) optical element formed by the twisting of a conic surface, a twisted microaxicon, allowing us to controllably generate high-quality spiral-shaped intensity patterns. Performance of the proposed element was analyzed both analytically and numerically using ray approximation and the rigorous finite difference time domain (FDTD) solution of Maxwell's equation. The main geometric parameters, an apex cone angle and a degree of twisting, were considered to control and optimize the generated spiral-shaped intensity patterns. The three-dimensional structure of such a microaxicon cannot be described by an unambiguous height function; therefore, it has no diffraction analogue in the form of a thin optical element. Such an element can be produced via direct laser ablation of transparent targets with structured laser beams or direct laser writing via two-photon photopolymerization and can be used in various micro- and nano-optical applications.

Effects of orbital angular momentum on few-cycle and sub-cycle pulse shapes: coupling between the temporal and angular momentum degrees of freedom

We describe the effects of the coupling between the orbital angular momentum (OAM) and the temporal degrees of freedom in pulsed Laguerre-Gauss beams as a significant increase of the duration of few-cycle pulses when the OAM carried by the pulse is large, and as an enhancement to other previously known spatiotemporal couplings as radial red- and blue-shift of the mean frequency. In contrast to other detrimental, but retrievable, effects in the generation and propagation of ultrashort vortices such as spatial, group velocity, and topological charge dispersions, the OAM-temporal coupling effect is unavoidable and, therefore, has an impact on applications such as OAM-based optical communications, or on the generation of vortex-carrying attosecond pulses.

Self-imaging of tailored vortex pulse arrays and spectral Gouy rotation echoes

Self-imaging of femtosecond pulses with orbital angular momentum is studied in spectral domain by illuminating the orthogonal arrays of spiral gratings. Spectral Gouy rotation, i.e., the characteristic circulation of extremal regions near phase singularities in spatial spectral maps, is found to partially reappear at discrete distances. The self-imaging of co-rotating and counter-rotating vortices is compared in intensity and spectral behavior. High-selectivity pattern recognition from weakly modulated spectral maps is demonstrated by analyzing spectral moments. By our experiments, the classical Talbot effect is extended to polychromatic pulsed vortex arrays with controlled maps of rotation sign.

Spectral anomalies and Gouy rotation around the singularity of ultrashort vortex pulses

Spectral anomalies of femtosecond pulses with orbital angular momentum were studied in the vicinity of singularities. Bessel-Gauss (BG) beams were generated with mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillators and dispersion-compensated diffractive axicons acting as spiral phase plates (SPPs). High-resolution two-dimensional spectral mapping was performed with a scanning fiber probe. Progressive rotation of the most pronounced features, known as "spectral eyes", in the maps of spectral moments was found at increasing propagation distance. The phenomenon is explained by a wavelength-dependent Gouy phase shift of interfering spectral components in the twisted wavefront. Spatial "spectral switching" was detected for few-cycle pulses. Possible improvements of selectivity are proposed.