Digital sorting perturbed Laguerre-Gaussian beams by radial numbers

Controllable experimental modulation of high-order Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes

High-order helical and sinusoidal Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser modes have uneven energy distribution among their multiple concentric vortex core rings and lobes, respectively. Here, we explore an experimental method to reshuffle the optical energy among their multiple concentric vortex core rings and lobes of high-order LG modes in a controllable manner. We numerically designed a diffractive optical element displayed over a spatial light modulator to rearrange optical energy among multiple concentric vortex core rings. This changes outer low-intensity concentric vortex core rings into high-intensity vortex core rings of high-order helical LG modes at the Fourier plane. The precise generation of a high-order modulated helical LG laser mode has a maximum number of highly intense concentric vortex core rings compared to known standard helical LG modes. Further, this method is extended to high-order sinusoidal LG modes consisting of both low- and high-intensity lobes to realize modulated sinusoidal LG modes with a maximum number of highly intense lobes in a controllable manner. We envisage that the modulated helical and sinusoidal high-order LG modes may surpass standard LG modes in many applications where highly intense rings and lobes are crucial, as in particle manipulation of micro- and nanoparticles, and optical lithography.

Joint spatial weak measurement with higher-order Laguerre-Gaussian point states

Here, joint spatial weak measurements with higher-order Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) point states are investigated experimentally. From the intensity patterns of the final LG point states, two dimensional position operators 〈X〉 and 〈Y〉 as well as high-order position operators 〈XY〉, 〈X² - Y²〉, 〈X³〉, and 〈Y³〉 are extracted simultaneously, from which both the complex weak values and joint weak values of two non-commuting observables can be obtained. The enhancement of joint weak values by the postselection state are analyzed. The simple relationship between the expectation values of position operators and the azimuthal and radial indexes of LG modes allows us to identify the mode indexes directly. A simple and robust scheme based on an optical window is demonstrated to monitor the LG mode indexes. These findings deepen the understanding of the weak measurement and provide an alternate and effective method for LG mode index monitoring.

Control of the orbital angular momentum via radial numbers of structured Laguerre-Gaussian beams

We found that the internal perturbations of the structured Laguerre-Gaussian beam in the form of two-parametric harmonic excitations of the Hermite-Gaussian (HG) modes in its composition mix up the radial and azimuthal numbers. The harmonic excitation is characterized by two parameters, one of them controls the amplitude of the HG modes, and the second parameter controls the phases of each HG mode. It was revealed that this mixing of the beam quantum numbers leads to the possibility of controlling the orbital angular momentum (OAM) by means of radial numbers. Non-zero radial numbers lead to rapid OAM oscillations as the phase parameter changes, while oscillations disappear if the radial number is zero. We have also shown that the variation of the phase parameter in a wide range of values does not change the modulus of the total topological charge of the structured beam, despite the fast OAM oscillations.

Measuring the squared amplitudes of the Laguerre-Gaussian beams via a single intensity frame

We propose the use of an intensity technique to decompose superpositions consisting of two, three, or four basis Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modes, and measure the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of such superpositions. The mode generation and decomposition are both accomplished only on a 2f optical imaging system. We demonstrate numerically and experimentally that the squared amplitudes of superpositions can be determined by recording a single frame of the intensity distribution. This is accomplished by measuring the intensity along certain circles and solving a linear set of equations relating the sampled intensities to squared amplitudes. The accuracy of better than 98% for composite beams consisting of two, and about 90% for composite beams consisting of more than two basis modes are achieved. Finally, we report the value of the measured OAM of the superpositions with excellent accuracy regarding theoretical values, for small and large integer and non-integer OAM.

Orbital angular momentum mode sorting based on a hybrid radial-angular hybrid lens

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes have their phase distribution as exp (jlθ), which resembles the plane wave in the Cartesian coordinates. Like the traditional lens, which can focus the plane wave on the focal plane, the angular lens can focus the OAM beam in the angular domain, albeit with a relatively long tail due to the unsatisfied angular focal condition for the non-ring shape beams. In this paper, a hybrid lens in the angular domain and the radial domain is proposed. The radial lens with the specific radially distributed phase guarantees the angular focal condition is met for the beams with an arbitrary beam waist or radial field distribution, which significantly improves the performance for the OAM modes sorting by the angular lens. The discrimination of the different OAM modes can be achieved efficiently based on such a single optical component, i.e., the proposed hybrid radial-angular lens, with the OAM modes inter-mode crosstalk as 3.7% when the topological charge difference is 3.

Structural stability of spiral vortex beams to sector perturbations

Conditions of breaking down the structural stability of a spiral vortex beam subject to sector perturbations were considered. Employing methods of computer simulation and processing experimental results, we have shown that the spiral vortex beam has a caustic surface, the intersection of which sharply changes a shape of the Poynting vector streamlines and critical points of the spiral beam. Nevertheless, the beam propagation (scaling and rotation) does not change the perturbed streamline's shape and phase pattern. We also revealed that strong beam perturbations can cause the conversion of the circulation direction of streamlines in the perturbation region, which entails the appearance of a network of optical vortices with negative topological charges. However, the beam's orbital angular momentum remains unchanging, despite increasing the information entropy (growing a number of vortex modes), so that the perturbed beam keeps new stable states.

Measuring the complex spectrum of orbital angular momentum and radial index with a single-pixel detector

Typical methods to decode a complex orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) spectrum suffer from issues such as a narrow OAM range, unstable interferometer, and long measuring time. In this Letter, we use a single-beam interferometer to measure the complex OAM spectrum with a single-pixel detector. The complex OAM spectrum ranging from -10 to 10 can be measured in 11 ms with the fidelity approach of 97.0%, experimentally. Our approach allows one to characterize an unknown coherent field with any complex basis, e.g., the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) basis is used for radial index spectrum measurement. Furthermore, single-pixel complex amplitude imaging based on the LG spectrum acquisition is presented, and the advantages in resolution and flexibility are demonstrated.

Fine structure of perturbed Laguerre-Gaussian beams: Hermite-Gaussian mode spectra and topological charge

We found that small perturbations of the optical vortex core in Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams generate a fine structure of the Hermite-Gaussian (HG) mode spectrum in the form of weak variations of amplitudes and phases of the HG modes. We developed and implemented the intensity moments technique for measuring the HG mode spectra. We also theoretically justified and experimentally implemented a technique for measuring the topological charge of the LG beams with an arbitrary number of ring dislocations. Theoretical discussion and experimental study are accompanied by examples of estimating the orbital angular momentum and the topological charge of perturbed LG beams as well as the algorithm for plotting the HG mode spectra.