Progress in OAM Beams: Recent Innovations and Future Perspectives

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2025 | Viewed by 2349

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Interests: sensing and imaging related to OAM; micro-optics; nano-photonics

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Guest Editor
Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
Interests: light propagation through random media; optical communication; atmospheric turbulence; sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In 1992, Allen et al. introduced orbital angular momentum (OAM) when they showed a connection between the helical phase structure of light and its OAM. Due to this helical phase structure, the OAM beams show a donut-shaped intensity profile with a phase singularity in the middle. Since the publication of this paper, interest in OAM beams has increased enormously, resulting in different types of OAM beams in which spatial or spatio-temporal structures have been utilized to manipulate light in different applications, like optical communication and optical micromanipulation (trapping and tweezing). OAM beams are also used in sensing and imaging applications to probe and condition optical channels in a turbulent or turbid environment. This Special Issue aims to publish selected contributions on recent research on OAM beams, innovative applications using OAM beams, and future perspectives.

Dr. Eric G. Johnson
Dr. Miranda Van Iersel
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • orbital angular momentum
  • structured light
  • imaging
  • sensing
  • optical communication
  • optical micromanipulation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

7 pages, 2079 KiB  
Article
Optical Angular Momentum Beam Generation Using Coherent Beam Combination
by Przemyslaw Gontar, Lukasz Gorajek, Waldemar Zendzian and Jan Jabczyński
Photonics 2024, 11(10), 907; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11100907 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 722
Abstract
(1) Background: The significant progress observed over the last two decades in coherent beam combining (CBC) technology has mainly focused on its applications in high-energy physics and laser weapons. This work provides insight into the basic principles of CBC and the search for [...] Read more.
(1) Background: The significant progress observed over the last two decades in coherent beam combining (CBC) technology has mainly focused on its applications in high-energy physics and laser weapons. This work provides insight into the basic principles of CBC and the search for an alternative, namely optical angular momentum (OAM) generation using CBC. (2) Methods: A semi-analytical model based on the paraxial wave equation was explored, generating OAM-CBC beams by manipulating the tilts and phases of the CBC (T&P-CBC) of hexagonal architecture. (3) Results: The specially arranged T&P-CBC shows typical properties of OAM, such as annular profiles for the zero diffraction order and 1st-order replicas in the far field and correlation coefficients of 1% between different OAM-CBC fields. (4) Conclusions: The differences between classical OAM beams and OAM-CBC are substantial due to hexagonal lattice properties. Moreover, applications in free space optical communications are feasible as T&P CBC fulfills the main conditions and requirements for OAM generation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Progress in OAM Beams: Recent Innovations and Future Perspectives)
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8 pages, 4348 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Transverse OAM Transmission through Few-Mode Fiber
by Chong Zhang, Qian Cao and Qiwen Zhan
Photonics 2024, 11(4), 328; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11040328 - 1 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1106
Abstract
Spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) wavepacket is a new type of vortex optical field carrying transverse orbital angular momentum (OAM). Due to the presence of imbalanced dispersion and diffraction phase, the STOV pulse undergoes fragmentation during free space propagation, leading to the disappearance of [...] Read more.
Spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) wavepacket is a new type of vortex optical field carrying transverse orbital angular momentum (OAM). Due to the presence of imbalanced dispersion and diffraction phase, the STOV pulse undergoes fragmentation during free space propagation, leading to the disappearance of the spatiotemporal vortex phase structure. For practical applications, having a stable long-distance propagation of STOV pulse is critical. Recent work demonstrates the transmission of transverse OAM in few-mode fiber. However, the maximum transmission distance is limited to 100 cm due to excessive group velocity dispersion between modes. In this work, we optimize the transmission of transverse OAM by engineering fiber parameters. By tuning the radius of the fiber core and the relative refractive index difference, the group time delay difference values between the LP01 and LP11 modes and their corresponding group velocity dispersion coefficients are minimized. The simulation results show that the optimized fiber allows the first-order STOV pulse to propagate up to 500 cm, and the second-order STOV pulse up to 300 cm without distorting the spatiotemporal vortex phase structure. Long-distance propagation of STOV pulse can create new opportunities and facilitate applications such as developing novel transverse OAM lasers and telecommunication approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Progress in OAM Beams: Recent Innovations and Future Perspectives)
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