English

Multipolar expansion of orbital angular momentum modes

Optics 2008-04-10 v1

Abstract

In this letter a general method for expanding paraxial beams into multipolar electromagnetic fields is presented. This method is applied to the expansion of paraxial modes with orbital angular momentum (OAM), showing how the paraxial OAM is related to the general angular momentum of an electromagnetic wave. This method can be extended to quasi-paraxial beams, i.e. highly focused laser beams. Some applications to the control of electronic transitions in atoms are discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0804.1494,
  title  = {Multipolar expansion of orbital angular momentum modes},
  author = {Gabriel Molina-Terriza},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0804.1494},
  year   = {2008}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:29:15.364Z