Revealing the radial modes in vortex beams

Light beams that carry orbital angular momentum are often approximated by modulating an initial beam, usually Gaussian, with an azimuthal phase variation to create a vortex beam. Such vortex beams are well defined azimuthally, but the radial profile is neglected in this generation approach. Here, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied optics (2004) 2016-10, Vol.55 (28), p.7830-7835
Main Authors: Sephton, Bereneice, Dudley, Angela, Forbes, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplitude modulation
Angular momentum
Approximation
Beams (radiation)
Electron beams
Gaussian
Gaussian beams (optics)
Light beams
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Summary:Light beams that carry orbital angular momentum are often approximated by modulating an initial beam, usually Gaussian, with an azimuthal phase variation to create a vortex beam. Such vortex beams are well defined azimuthally, but the radial profile is neglected in this generation approach. Here, we show that a consequence of this is that vortex beams carry very little energy in the desired zeroth radial order, as little as only a few percent of the incident power. We demonstrate this experimentally and illustrate how to overcome the problem by complex amplitude modulation of the incident field.
ISSN:1559-128X
2155-3165
DOI:10.1364/AO.55.007830