Orbital angular momentum light frequency conversion and interference with quasi-phase matching crystals

Light with helical phase structures, carrying quantized orbital angular momentum (OAM), has many applications in both classical and quantum optics, such as high-capacity optical communications and quantum information processing. Frequency conversion is a basic technique to expand the frequency range of fundamental light. The frequency conversion of OAM-carrying light gives rise to new physics and applications such as up-conversion detection of images and high dimensional OAM entanglements. Quasi-phase matching (QPM) nonlinear crystals are good candidates for frequency conversion, particularly for their high-valued effective nonlinear coefficients and no walk-off effect. Here we report the first experimental second-harmonic generation (SHG) of OAM light with a QPM crystal, where a UV light with OAM of 100 is generated. OAM conservation is verified using a specially designed interferometer. With a pump beam carrying an OAM superposition of opposite sign, we observed interesting interference phenomena in the SHG light; specifically, a photonics gear-like structure is obtained that gives direct evidence of OAM conservation, which will be very useful for ultra-sensitive angular measurements. We also develop a theory to reveal the underlying physics of the phenomena. The methods and theoretical analysis shown here are also applicable to other frequency conversion processes, such as sum frequency generation and difference-frequency generation, and may also be generalized to the quantum regime for single photons.