Related papers: Rotatum of Light
Light is the fundamental medium through which we perceive the world around us. In the modern era, light can not only be used in its raw form but can also be used as a versatile tool. Generally, light fields carry energy and momentum (both…
Vortices are whirling disturbances commonly found in nature ranging from tremendously small scales in Bose-Einstein condensates to cosmologically colossal scales in spiral galaxies. An optical vortex, generally associated with a spiral…
Light beam with optical vortices can propagate in free space only with integer orbital angular momentum. Here, we invert this scientific consensus theoretically and experimentally by proposing light beams carrying natural non-integer…
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light holds great promise for applications in optical communication, super-resolution imaging, and high-dimensional quantum computing. However, the spatio-temporal coherence of the light source has been…
In optics, we can generate vortex beams using specific methods such as spiral phase plates or computer generated holograms. While, in nature, it is worth noting that water can produce vortices by a circularly symmetrical hole. So, if a…
Optical beams with a new and distinctive type of helicity have become the subject of much recent interest. While circularly polarised light comprises photons with spin angular momentum, these optically engineered 'twisted beams' (optical…
Engineering of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light due to interaction with photonic lattices reveals rich physics and motivates potential applications. We report the experimental creation of regularly-distributed quantized vortex…
We consider propagation of a paraxial beam carrying the spin angular momentum (polarization) and intrinsic orbital angular momentum (IOAM) in a smoothly inhomogeneous isotropic medium. It is shown that the presence of IOAM can dramatically…
Light can carry a spin angular momentum, an intrinsic and extrinsic orbital angular momentum, associated with a circular polarization, optical vortex beams, and varying beam trajectories, respectively. The interplay between these momenta…
Fractional-order vector vortex beams are recently demonstrated to be new carriers of fractional-strength optical vortices. However, why can those new vortex beams formed by the combination of both unstable states propagate stably in free…
Optical vortex beams are a type of topological light characterized by their inherent orbital angular momentum, leading to the propagation of a spiral-shaped wavefront. In this study, we focus on two-dimensional electrons with Rashba and…
Structured light has emerged as an important tool to interrogate and manipulate matter at micron and sub-micron scale. One form of structured light is an optical vortex beam. The helical wavefront of these vortices carry orbital angular…
Quantum vortices are the analogue of classical vortices in optics, Bose-Einstein condensates, superfluids and superconductors, where they provide the elementary mode of rotation and orbital angular momentum. While they mediate important…
Optical vortices generically arise when optical beams are combined. Recently, we reported how several laser beams containing optical vortices could be combined to form optical vortex loops, links and knots embedded in a light beam (Leach et…
We show, both theoretically and experimentally, that the propagation of optical vortices in free space can be analysed by using the width ($w(z)$) of the host Gaussian beam and the inner and outer radii of the vortex beam at the source…
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light and optical vortices are closely related concepts that are often conflated. The conserved OAM arises fundamentally from the SO(3) rotational symmetry of spacetime, while the concept of vortices…
An optical vortex, produced at one point in an optical beam, would propagate through an optical system to another point where the vortex can be used for some purpose. However, asymmetrical optical elements in such a system can cause…
Optical vortices are phase singularities nested in electromagnetic waves that constitute a fascinating source of phenomena in the physics of light and display deep similarities to their close relatives, quantized vortices in superfluids and…
Optical vortices are the electromagnetic analogue of fluid vortices studied in hydrodynamics. In both cases the traveling wavefront, either made of light or fluid, is twisted like a corkscrew around its propagation axis - an analogy that…
Light states evolution versus their fractional orbital angular momentum (OAM) has been analyzed in the conical diffraction process occurring through biaxial crystals. Experimental results are provided by a non-degenerate cascade of…