Measuring the topological charge of an optical vortex by using a tilted convex lens

We demonstrate, analytically and experimentally, a simple, but effective method to determine the topological charge of an optical vortex by using a spherical bi-convex lens, a ubiquitous optical element found in any optics laboratory. Just by tilting the lens and recording the intensity distribution of a propagating vortex at a predicted position past the lens, we have been able to measure both the sign and the magnitude of the topological charge m   up to m=±14$m=\pm 14$. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with analytical predictions.     

Generation and detection of optical vortices using all fiber-optic system

We demonstrate simultaneous generation, propagation and detection of optical vortices using all fiber-optic system. A fiber-optic Y-coupler was used for generating spherical and doughnut beams, simultaneously. Gaussian (TEM₀₀) beam emitted from CW red He-Ne laser is coupled into the fiber coupler and is converted into vortex beam via second arm of fiber which propagates with azimuthal phase dependence having well defined orbital angular momentum. The phase structure of vortex beam was detected by interfering both the beams using simple fiber-optic interferometer. The present all fiber-optic system might find application for detecting, sensing physical parameters and is simple and cost effective for generating and detecting optical vortices.     

Measuring the topological charge of optical vortices with an axicon

We analyzed the spatial spectrum of the diffraction intensity pattern of an ideal Bessel beam and found an implicit rule that the number of the bright rings in the spatial spectrum is equal to the topological charge of the Bessel beam. The radius of the bright and dark rings has some relation with the topological charge and can be determined accurately. It provides us with a new way for measuring the topological charge of an optical vortex through its diffraction intensity pattern after an axicon. The results of simulation coincide with the theory.     

拓扑视角下的光学涡环

涡旋环是一种广泛存在于流体和气体中的可传播环形结构,其与拓扑学中的纽结理论密切相关。近年来,随着光场调控技术的发展,时空光场在时间和空间维度的紧密联系为研究光学拓扑结构提供了良好的平台。文章将回顾近期关于光学涡环的系列研究,介绍光学涡环产生过程中的物理机制;并分别从拓扑和结构光两个视角出发,详细讨论由光学涡环延伸出的光学相位拓扑结构,包括标量光学霍普夫子及光学相位莫比乌斯环。     

Effects of the induced birefringence in photorefractive crystals on speckle optical vortices

In this work, we show that it is possible to change the properties of an optical vortex formed in a speckle pattern by the control of an external electric field applied to a sillenite-type photorefractive material in a non-holographic configuration. To show it, a scheme that allows the recovering of both, the polarization state and the phase distribution of an optical field was implemented. Changes in the polarization state of the light in the neighborhood of the vortex were observed with the application of an external electric field. Likewise, changes in the phase structure around the vortex and displacements of the vortices themselves were measured. These displacements have a fairly linear dependence on the applied field to the photorefractive crystal. Experimental results are qualitatively explained with the theoretical treatment of non-holographic recording in photorefractive crystals.     

The new method of topological charge determination of optical vortices in the interference field of the optical vortex interferometer

In this paper, the new method of determination of the topological charge of vortex points in the interference field obtained by three plane waves interference is presented. Such optical fields are used in the optical vortex interferometer (OVI) and the determination of vortex points’ topological charge allows of unique determination of the relative phase between interfering waves (phase unwrapping problem). The new method uses additional plane wave, which produce a characteristic fork-like fringe structure in the neighbourhood of vortex points. By analysing the orientation of these fork-like patterns one can read the sign of the topological charge of the given vortex point. The method is simple and can be used for OVI calibration performed before the measurements.     

Measuring the topological charge of optical vortices with a single plate

Measuring the topological charge(TC) of optical vortex beams by the edge-diffraction pattern of a single plate is proposed and demonstrated. The diffraction fringes can keep well discernible in a wide three-dimensional range in this method. The redundant fringes of the diffracted fork-shaped pattern in the near-field can determine the TC value, and the orientation of the fork tells the handedness of the vortex. The plate can be opaque or translucent, and the requirement of the translucent plate ...     

Polynomial Gaussian beams and topological charge conservation

We investigate polynomial Gaussian beams with rotationally symmetric Gaussian envelops and complex bivariate polynomial prefactors of finite order. A formalism for the propagation of such beams is developed, which expresses how the coefficients of the polynomial transform during propagation. This formalism is used to proof that global topological charge is conserved for this class of polynomial Gaussian beams.     

Propagation dynamics of optical vortices in Laguerre–Gaussian beams

We have calculated the propagation dynamics of an initial off-axis vortex with topological charge 1 in Laguerre–Gaussian background beams , which are examples of background beams with non-generic dislocation surfaces, on which the real and imaginary parts of the light field are zero. When initially a vortex with broad core (e.g., r-vortex) is embedded in the background beam, the dislocation surfaces are destroyed during propagation and two vortices with opposite charge are created per dislocation surface in planes perpendicular to the propagation direction. For a vortex with narrow core (e.g., point vortex) diffraction is important and leads to the birth of more than two vortices per dislocation surface. These results are also valid for other background beams with dislocation surfaces, e.g., Hermite–Gaussian and Ince–Gaussian beams. We investigated experimentally the spatial evolution of the intensity distribution of an initial off-axis vortex with narrow core and topological charge 1 in background beams. The experimental results are in good agreement with the calculated intensity distributions.     

Near-field hexagonal array illumination based on fractional Talbot effect

Hexagonal array is a basic structure widely exists in nature and adopted by optoelectronic device. A phase plate based on the fractional Talbot effect that converts a single expanded laser beam into a regular hexagonal array of uniformly illuminated apertures with virtually 100% efficiency is presented. The uniform hexagonal array illumination with a fill factor of 1/12 is demonstrated by the computer simulation.     

Remarkable ability of spiral orthogonal zone plate in generating various focused optical vortices

We propose an amplitude spiral orthogonal zone plate (ASOZP) as a Cartesian-based spiral zone plate for generating variety of optical vortices. The presented model is made by overlapping closely a vertical spiral one-dimensional zone plate and a horizontal one. We demonstrate that the element produces diversity of focused vortices, in a way that the vorticity and number of the produced vortices could be easily manipulated. In addition, the generated vortices show rotation features in the vicinity of the focal plane. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that diffraction efficiency of the model is much more higher than the previously introduced Cartesian-based elements. We finally verify numerical results by experimental studies.     

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.     

Splitting and rotating of optical vortices due to non-circular symmetry in amplitude and phase distributions of host beams

Discussed is the dynamics of optical vortices carrying multi-topological charges, which are nested in optical envelopes with non-circular symmetric amplitudes and phases. As a result of the non-circular symmetry either in amplitudes or in phases, the vortices can split in pairs from the centers of the host beams. During the splitting process of every constituent vortex, its carried integer charges evolve into fractional ones. Furthermore, the overall rotations of the host optical envelopes are found to happen in the splitting process. The theoretical results may find potential applications in beam shaping and engineering.     

Optical encoder based on Fractional-Talbot effect using two-dimensional phase grating

This work presents an optical encoder that uses a two-dimensional phase grating. Rather than using a four-windowed scanning grating, this design with a special two-dimensional phase index grating generates two sinusoidal signals that are mutually phase-shifted by 180°. Afterwards, two large-areas, specially structured index grating generates the four 90° electrically phase-shifted scanning signals. The special design of the two-dimensional phase index grating provides more accuracy of phase-shift by using the fact that the  + 1 and −1 diffraction orders are intrinsically phase-shifted from one another by 180°. The gap between the phase index grating and mail scale was increased to three quarters of Talbot distance. The tolerance of gap between the index and main grating is 0.1 mm. The tolerance of yaw motion is ± 0.25°.     

Talbot Images of an Array Source with Correlated Phase Fluctuation Using the Propagation Law of a Gaussian Beam

Talbot images of a two-dimensional array source such as a surface-emitting array laser are investigated with the help of the propagation law of a Gaussian beam. The effect of the phase fluctuation existing between the elements of the source on the formation of Talbot images is revealed by computer simulation. In the study, the correlation extent of the phase fluctuation is taken into consideration together with its magnitude (standard deviation), and Talbot images of good quality are found to be formed when the correlation extent is larger than the extent of the diffraction of a Gaussian beam in the observation plane. It is further shown that the contrast of Talbot images is governed, in a statistical sense, not by the magnitude of the phase itself but by the phase-fluctuation slope in the array source.     

Sum-frequency mixing of optical vortices in nonlinear crystals

Results of theoretical and experimental investigation of the influence of walk-off on sum-frequency mixing of optical vortices in nonlinear crystals are presented. Various phenomena of vortex interaction such as decay of higher order vortices into singly charged vortices, formation of aligned arrays of vortices perpendicular to walk-off direction, particle-like pulling and pushing of vortices, and appearance of pairs of vortices having opposite charges were observed.     

Chiral nanoemitter array: A launchpad for optical vortices

A chiral arrangement of molecular nanoemitters is shown to support delocalised exciton states whose spontaneous decay can generate optical vortex radiation. In contrast to techniques in which phase modification is imposed upon conventional optical beams, this exciton method enables radiation with a helical wave‐front to be produced directly. To achieve this end, a number of important polarisation and symmetry‐based criteria need to be satisfied. It emerges that the phase structure of the optical field produced by degenerate excitons in a propeller‐shaped array can exhibit precisely the sought character of an optical vortex – one with unit topological charge. Practical considerations for the further development of this technique are discussed, and potential new applications are identified.     

Accelerating,guiding, and sub‐wavelength trapping of neutral atoms with tailored optical vortices

Single neutral atom mechanics is controllable by focused, high‐intensity optical vortices. The intensity‐dependent, laser‐driven motion of the atom's active electrons subsumes to a net transfer of the orbital angular momentum of the light to the neutral atom. The ponderomotive force on these electrons translates so into an unbounded or a bounded radial drift of the atom depending on its initial kinetic energy, as set by the temperature. Appropriate combination of laser beams results in sub‐wavelength, dynamical radial traps for tweezing atoms controllably, an effect that can be exploited for atom guiding, structuring, and lithographic applications.

     

Regimes of oscillation in a linear array of vortices

The instabilities of a linear array of vortices are studied experimentally, for two values of the thickness of the fluid layer. In the first case (thickness of 2 mm), the system is found to behave like a chain of coupled oscillators. New experimental results obtained for a thickness of 3 mm are described. The qualitatively different behavior found in the latter case may be the signature of the influence of a second-neighbor coupling.     

Particle sorting using a subwavelength optical fiber

Size‐based particle sorting using a subwavelength optical fiber was demonstrated with 600‐nm and 1‐μm sizes of polystyrene particles. Optical forces acting on the particles were calculated based on three‐dimensional finite‐difference time‐domain simulations at wavelengths of 808, 1047, and 1310 nm propagating in a subwavelength optical fiber with diameter of 800 nm. Calculations indicate that by launching two counterpropagating laser beams at different wavelengths into the fiber, the directions of the resultant optical scattering forces acting on the two particle sizes can be opposite along the fiber, which leads to a countertransport of the particles. To verify the theoretical prediction, experiments were performed using the 800‐nm fiber to sort the two particle sizes. The results show that with two counterpropagating beams at 808 and 1310 nm, a continuous particle sorting was achieved. Measured particle velocities were in agreement with the theoretical calculations.