螺旋光束经过振幅型衍射光学元件的传输特性及其拓扑电荷数的测量

本文提出了一种利用空间光调制器生成杨氏双缝和三角孔等振幅型衍射光学元件的方法. 利用平面波角谱衍射公式和柯林斯公式研究了螺旋光束经过这两种衍射元件后的传输特性, 并利用杨氏双缝和三角孔实现了螺旋光束拓扑电荷数的测量. 由于空间光调制器可以方便和高精度地改变光学器件的几何尺寸和所在的空间位置, 因此可便捷地实现螺旋光束拓扑电荷数的测量.     

Topological charge dependent propagation of optical vortices under quadratic phase transformation

We make optical vortices of different topological charge and diffract them through a quadratic phase mask using the same spatial light modulator. This phase mask shows the diffraction in which the positive diffracted order has different dynamics than the negative diffracted order. The diffraction pattern and its orientation depend on the charge of the vortex as well as its sign. The experimental results are verified with exact analytical results.     

单环多段光强分布检测光学涡旋拓扑荷值

针对涡旋光束检测范围局限这一问题, 提出了一种新的光学涡旋拓扑荷值检测方法-单环多段光强分布检测法, 它以分段数和环半径为两大检测常数, 将检测涡旋光束拓扑荷值范围扩大到了128种, 与以往利用旁瓣调控光学涡旋检测拓扑荷值方法相比, 检测范围扩大了1个数量级. 单环多段光强分布是基于计算机全息图实现在远场衍射焦平面上环半径相等的两束携带不同拓扑荷数的涡旋光束叠加后形成的光强分布. 计算机模拟和光学实验验证了所提出方法的可行性, 该方法在自由空间光通信领域具有一定的研究价值和应用潜力.     

High-harmonic-generation-inspired preparation of optical vortex arrays with arbitrary-order topological charges

In the process of high-harmonic generation with a Laguerre-Gaussian(LG) mode, it was well established that the topological charge could be of an N-fold increase due to angular momentum conservation. Here, by mimicking the effect of high-harmonic generation, we devise a simple algorithm to generate optical vortex arrays carrying arbitrary topological charges with a single phase-only spatial light modulator. By initially preparing a coaxial superposition of suitable low-order LG modes, we demonstrate experimentally that the topological charges of the embedded vortices can be multiplied and transformed into arbitrarily high orders on demand, while the array structure remains unchanged. Our algorithm offers a concise way to efficiently manipulate the structured light beams and holds promise in optical micromanipulation and remote sensing.     

Parallel two-photon photopolymerization of microgear patterns

We report parallel two-photon photopolymerization of microgear patterns by exposing a photoresist to holographically generated optical vortices. The optical vortices are created by imparting a helical pitch onto the incident light using a programmable lithographic phase mask realized with a computer addressable phase-only spatial light modulator. By varying the phase levels of the spatial light modulator, the truncated helical phase of an optical vortex results in output intensity patterns that typifies that of microgears instead of perfect doughnut beams. Our experiments and simulations are in good agreement implying a more efficient and highly parallel two-photon photopolymerization scheme that can be subsequently used for non-scanning fabrication of microgears.     

利用全息法在偶氮聚合物薄膜中记录涡旋光场

利用全息技术在偶氮聚合物薄膜中记录了拓扑荷数q=–1,1,2,4的涡旋光场,并将记录的原始叉形光栅与计算全息光栅进行对比,对不同拓扑荷数涡旋光的记录速率和偶氮材料的可重复擦写性能进行了测试;记录完成后,将复现涡旋光与高斯光束干涉,并与原始涡旋光和原始叉形光栅对比,分析了记录质量.实验结果表明:高阶涡旋光场的全息叉形光栅会在记录过程中发生劈裂,轻微劈裂的涡旋光束仍维持一个稳定的环状结构;全息记录过程中不同拓扑荷数的涡旋光束记录速率较为统一,偶氮材料可经过上百次的擦写而不出现疲劳;再现涡旋光与原始涡旋光在光强分布结构上保持高度一致,再现涡旋光的干涉条纹与原始涡旋全息光栅保持高度一致,涡旋光及其携带的拓扑荷信息可被有效记录和读取.     

Generation of optical vortex array based on the fractional Talbot effect

A phase-only diffractive optical element (DOE) for generating array of optical vortices with high compression ratio is presented. Since it is designed according to the fractional Talbot effect, we name the DOE optical vortex Talbot array illuminator (OVTAI). As an example, an OVTAI for generating a hexagonal array of optical vortices is designed, and demonstrated through displaying the OVTAI on a programmable liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The diffraction properties of the vortex array generated by the OVTAI are observed and analyzed, and an optimal distance for generating sharp ringed vortex arrays is given.     

Design of refractive/diffractive hybrid optical elements for beam shaping with large diffraction pattern

Diffractive optics is an important technique for beam shaping with high light efficiency and strong diffraction pattern flexibility. Since the diffraction angle is limited by the unit size of the diffractive optical element(DOE),the size of the required diffraction pattern is always rather small. In this Letter, refractive/diffractive hybrid optical elements(RDHOEs) consisting of a DOE and a lens are used to realize beam shaping for a large diffraction pattern. The lens, as the component of the RDHOEs, can not only be concave but also convex,and the double sampling Fresnel diffraction algorithm is developed for the design of these two types of RDHOEs.The simulation and experimental results provide solid evidence to demonstrate the proposed method with the pure phase spatial light modulator.     

Generation of optical vortices in multihelical optical fibers

It is theoretically demonstrated that multihelical fibers are capable to change the topological charge of the incoming field by l units in the transmitted and reflected light. The magnitude of the change in the topological charge coincides with the number of coaxial helicoids forming the fiber core. This can be used in designing generators of optical vortices (OVs) from Gaussian beams: broadband ones in transmitted light and narrowband ones in reflected light.     

Doing arithmetic with nonlinear acoustic vortices

Phase singularities of wave-front-like screw dislocations or vortices possess a well-defined quantity that can only take integer value: the topological charge. In the nonlinear regime, it has been demonstrated that optical or acoustical vortices interact and the topological charge follows a conservation law. Here this facility is used in nonlinear parametric interaction of two vortices shifted in frequency to perform sums and subtractions of the topological charge. Thus, we experimentally demonstrate a new technique to perform wave computation in the group of integer Z. When the two vortices have commensurable frequencies, different combinations give the same frequencies but different tolopological charges may occur. We show that an energy criterion can be used to predict the outcome. A corollary is that a modulation of amplitude of the vortices switches from one result to the other.     

多环涡旋光束的实验研究

涡旋光束的产生、传输与应用是当前光学领域热门的研究课题之一.本文提出的新型多环涡旋光束,包括双环涡旋及三环涡旋光束,它是由多束携带不同拓扑电荷数且束腰半径不同的拉盖尔-高斯涡旋光束共轴叠加而成,其光强分布为多环结构.从理论上研究了多环涡旋光束的形成与分布特征,基于共轭对称延拓Fourier计算全息方法生成了多环涡旋光束的计算全息图,并利用一个空间光调制器实验产生了与理论一致的高质量的多环涡旋光束.研究表明多环涡旋光束的各环携带不同的轨道角动量,空间分布保持相互独立.这种新型的多环涡旋光束相对于携带单一拓扑电荷数的涡旋光束,提供了更多的控制参数和更加多样化的结构分布,因此在光学镊子、光学捕获等微操控以及光通信领域具有潜在的应用潜力.     

Conversion of topological charge of optical vortices in a parametric frequency converter

It is shown that sum-frequency generation of light beams with vortices allows to construct vortices of different topological charges. An optical parametric amplifier enables to produce a vortex with opposite topological charge (to the reverse vortex). In this way, a frequency converter can be seen as a prototype of an optical processor which allows to produce simple arithmetical operations with topological charges of the interacting vortices.     

用液晶空间光调制器产生光阱阵列

液晶空间光调制器能够方便地用于制作各种衍射型光学元件, 但液晶空间光调制器存在分辨率有限的缺点, 本文提出了用液晶空间光调制器制作相位型光栅, 产生一维和二维光阱阵列的新方案, 用迭代傅里叶级数算法优化设计光栅的相位分布, 在不改变空间光调制器硬件参数设置的情况下, 充分利用和发掘了空间光调制器的优点, 同时又能较好地回避其所存在的缺陷. 根据现有的空间光调制器的技术参数, 模拟仿真设计光栅, 计算光强分布, 结果表明: 用大失谐、小功率激光照明, 能够产生具有很高峰值光强和光强梯度的光阱阵列, 囚禁冷原子的光学偶极势达到mK量级, 对原子的作用力远大于原子的重力.     

电寻址空间光调制器“黑栅”效应的消除方法

提出了两种消除电寻址空间光调制器由于低开口率所引起的"黑栅"效应的方法:利用衍射微透镜阵列的方法和利用纯相位型光束整形器件阵列的方法.分析了这两种方法的基本原理,给出了微透镜阵列和光束整形器件阵列的设计思想,并比较了这两种方法的异同点.采用杨一顾相位恢复算法得到了光束整形结果.理论分析及仿真计算表明:这种方法均能有效地消除电寻址空间光调制器相邻象素之间的黑带.     

Invisible Visual Cryptography

We propose to realize visual cryptography in an indirect way with the help of diffractive optics, the pure-amplitude keys being substituted with the phase-only keys that are invisible for common-used intensity detectors, leading to the significantly enhanced security and improved usability for practice. Three typical realizations are provided by using static or dynamic diffractive optical elements, and the new concept of invisible visual cryptography(IVC)may be established. This concept is demonstrated by a compact opto-electronic system with only one spatial light modulator within time-delayed exposure, maintaining the fast speed of decryption and no requirement to the calculation of decryption in conventional visual cryptography. Further, IVC shows the immunity to noises and good information capacity, which is partly inherited from diffractive optics. IVC might suggest a new strategy for visual cryptography with the respective of diverse realizations, such as opto-electronic or even bio-chemical or other methods.     

Design and verification of diffractive optical elements for speckle generation of 3-D range sensors

The optical projection using speckles is one of the structured light methods that have been applied to three-dimensional (3-D) range sensors. This paper investigates the design and fabrication of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for generating the light field with uniformly distributed speckles. Based on the principles of computer generated holograms, the iterative Fourier transform algorithm was adopted for the DOE design. It was used to calculate the phase map for diffracting the incident laser beam into a goal pattern with distributed speckles. Four patterns were designed in the study. Their phase maps were first examined by a spatial light modulator and then fabricated on glass substrates by microfabrication processes. Finally, the diffraction characteristics of the fabricated devices were verified. The experimental results show that the proposed methods are applicable to the DOE design of 3-D range sensors. Furthermore, any expected diffraction area and speckle density could be possibly achieved according to the relations presented in the paper.     

Superfluidlike motion of vortices in light condensates

We demonstrate, through numerical simulations, the generation of stable vortex lattices in light condensates. This can be achieved by propagating several concentric laser beams with nested vortices of different topological charges in an optical material with a cubic-quintic nonlinearity. We have considered several initial conditions, and in all the cases the net topological charges of the resulting lattice is equal to the topological charge of the initial outer vortex. The lattice exhibits rotation similar to vortex motion in superfluids. These vortex arrays could be used to implement all-optical photonic crystal fibers. Our results also apply to Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of three-body elastic interactions.     

Pseudo angular momentum and topological charge conservation for nonlinear acoustical vortices

We study acoustical vortices (AVs) and their connection with optical vortices (OVs). We show that AVs and OVs have the same properties if the concept of pseudomomentum is used. Radiation stress and conservation of topological charge are obtained with the pseudomomentum rule. In a weak nonlinear regime, the conservation of pseudo angular momentum imposes a linear increase of the topological charge with the harmonic order. This last result is experimentally verified.     

Formation of optical vortices using coherent laser beam arrays

We present a proposal to generate an optical vortex beam by using the coherent-superposition of multi-beams in a radially symmetric configuration. In terms of the generalized Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral, we have derived the general propagation expression for the coherent radial arrays of laser beams. Using the derived formulae, we have analyzed the effects of the beamlet number N, the separation distance ρ of the beamlets and the topological charge m on the intensity and phase distributions of the resultant beams. Our simulation results show that optical vortices could be efficiently generated due to the coherent-superposition effect of all beamlets, during the propagation process of the coherent radial array of laser beams with the initial well-organized phase distributions through the free space. In the focusing system, the resultant beam near the focusing plane has the strong rotational effect with the phase helicity.     

Generation of helical Ince-Gaussian beams with a liquid-crystal display

We generate helical Ince-Gaussian (HIG) beams by using complex amplitude and phase masks encoded onto a liquid-crystal display (LCD). These beams display an intensity pattern consisting of elliptic rings, whose number and ellipticity can be controlled, and a phase exhibiting a number of in-line vortices, each with a unitary topological charge. We show experimental results that display the properties of these elliptic dark hollow beams. We introduce a novel interference technique for generating the object and reference beams by using a single LCD and show the vortex interference patterns. We expect that these HIG beams will be useful in optical trapping applications.