Open AccessLocalization from the unique intensity gradient of an orbital-angular-momentum beam
Author(s) -
Guodong Xie,
Long Li,
Yongxiong Ren,
Yan Yan,
Nisar Ahmed,
Zhe Zhao,
Changjing Bao,
Zhe Wang,
Cong Liu,
Haoqian Song,
Runzhou Zhang,
Kai Pang,
Solyman Ashrafi,
Moshe Tur,
Alan E. Willner
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
optics letters/optics index
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.524
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1071-2763
pISSN - 0146-9592
DOI - 10.1364/ol.42.000395
Subject(s) - physics , optics , beam (structure) , offset (computer science) , angular momentum , intensity (physics) , tracking (education) , detector , signal (programming language) , gaussian , computer science , psychology , pedagogy , quantum mechanics , programming language
We propose and simulate the use of the unique intensity gradient of beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) for tracking and localization of an object. We design a three-pixel detector structure to efficiently determine the intensity gradient of an OAM beam. The resultant intensity gradient is then used to calculate the offset direction and distance of the target object from the center of the OAM beam. Our simulation results indicate the following: (i) an OAM-based localization system can have a stronger control signal than the one generated from a Gaussian beam; (ii) an OAM+2 beam may generate a ∼5× stronger localization feedback signal but operates over half the target capture area as an OAM+1 beam; and (iii) our scheme will generally have two orders of magnitude lower accuracy but ∼2× larger coverage area as the distance from the beam emitter to the target increases from 200 to 1000 m.