Open AccessProposed phase plate for superimposed orbital angular momentum state generation
Author(s) -
Houquan Liu,
Chuanxin Teng,
Hongyan Yang,
Hongchang Deng,
Ronghui Xu,
Shijie Deng,
Ming Chen,
Libo Yuan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.014792
Subject(s) - angular momentum , physics , optics , phase (matter) , light beam , topological quantum number , optical vortex , azimuth , quadratic equation , orbital angular momentum of light , modulation (music) , phase modulation , momentum (technical analysis) , beam (structure) , quantum mechanics , total angular momentum quantum number , geometry , mathematics , acoustics , finance , economics
In this letter, a quadratic phase plate (QPP) whose thickness increases quadratically with azimuthal angle φ is proposed. When a beam with initial topological charge m (m could be an arbitrary integer) is passed through the plate, quadratic phase modulation can be expected to expand the initial single orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode to a superimposed OAM state. The obtained multi-OAM state exhibits a comb-like OAM spectrum, which shows a flat region. The power variation of the OAM modes within the flat region is less than 3 dB, while the power for the OAM modes with charge numbers out of the flat region decays rapidly. Moreover, the number of OAM modes within the flat region can reach dozens. This may have potential applications in the field of communication, quantum information and optical manipulation, etc.