Open AccessVersatile total angular momentum generation using cascaded J-plates
Author(s) -
Yao-Wei Huang,
Noah A. Rubin,
Antonio Ambrosio,
Zhujun Shi,
Robert C. Devlin,
ChengWei Qiu,
Federico Capasso
Publication year - 2019
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.27.007469
Subject(s) - angular momentum , physics , optics , total angular momentum quantum number , photon , polarization (electrochemistry) , optical vortex , angular momentum coupling , orbital angular momentum of light , angular momentum of light , quantum , spin (aerodynamics) , light beam , photon polarization , quantum mechanics , chemistry , thermodynamics
Optical elements coupling the spin and orbital angular momentum (SAM/OAM) of light have found a range of applications in classical and quantum optics. The J-plate, with J referring to the photon's total angular momentum (TAM), is a metasurface device that imparts two arbitrary OAM states on an arbitrary orthogonal basis of spin states. We demonstrate that when these J-plates are cascaded in series, they can generate several single quantum number beams and versatile superpositions thereof. Moreover, in contrast to previous spin-orbit-converters, the output polarization states of cascaded J-plates are not constrained to be the conjugate of the input states. Cascaded J-plates are also demonstrated to produce vector vortex beams and complex structured light, providing new ways to control TAM states of light.