Mode structure and orbital angular momentum of spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) pulses
Optics
2021-11-10 v4
Abstract
We identify a class of modal solutions for spatio-temporal optical vortex (STOV) electromagnetic pulses propagating in dispersive media with orbital angular momentum (OAM) orthogonal to propagation. We find that symmetric STOVs in vacuum can carry half-integer intrinsic orbital angular momentum (OAM); for general asymmetric STOVs in a dispersive medium, the OAM is quantized in integer multiples of a parameter that depends on the STOV symmetry and the group velocity dispersion. Our results suggest that STOVs propagating in dispersive media are accompanied by a polariton-like quasiparticle. The modal theory is in excellent agreement with measurements of free space propagation of STOVs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.03263,
title = {Mode structure and orbital angular momentum of spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) pulses},
author = {S. W. Hancock and S. Zahedpour and H. M. Milchberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.03263},
year = {2021}
}