Search Results (12)

Vortex beams (VBs) generated by plasmonic metasurfaces hold great potential in the field of information transmission due to their unique helical phase wavefronts and infinite eigenstates. However, achieving perfect multiplexing and superposition of VBs with different orders remains a challenging issue in nanophotonics research. In this paper, based on a single-layer metallic porous metasurface structure applicable to the infrared spectrum, VBs with orders 2, 4, 6, and 8 are realized through the arrangement of annular elliptical apertures. Moreover, perfect VBs are achieved by optimizing key structural parameters using a genetic algorithm. The optimization of key structural parameters via genetic-based optimization algorithms to attain the desired effects can significantly reduce the workload of manual parameter adjustment. In addition, leveraging the orthogonality between VBs of different orders, concentric circular multi-channel VBs array (l = 2, 6) and (l = 4, 8) are realized. High-purity multiplexing architectures (>90%) are achieved via rational optimization of critical structural parameters using a genetic optimization algorithm, which further mitigates information crosstalk in optical communication transmission. The introduction of the genetic algorithm not only reduces the workload of manual arrangement of unit arrays but also enables the generation of more perfect VBs, providing a new research direction for optical communication transmission and optical communication encryption. Full article

As extensions of circular symmetric vortex beams, elliptical vortex beams with more diverse field forms are worthy of attention. In this paper, we investigate the mode propagation characteristics of an elliptical perfect optical vortex (EPOV) beam in oceanic turbulence. The theoretical model is constructed to analyze the detection probability of orbital angular momentum mode and average capacity at the receiver. The results reveal that the self-focusing property of the EPOV beam is able to improve propagation performance. By changing the elliptical scaling factor and the ratio of ring radius to width, the self-focusing effect is adjustable. The smaller elliptical scaling factor and ring radius to width ratio are beneficial for short-range transmission, while the larger ones are better for long-range transmission. Furthermore, the impacts of oceanic temperature and salinity in wide variation ranges are analyzed by use of the oceanic turbulence optical power spectrum. Higher capacity is obtained when the EPOV beam propagates in low-temperature and low-salinity oceanic channel. The research is referable for the design of underwater communication systems. Full article

Double-ring perfect vortex beams (DR–PVBs) have attracted increasing attention due to their unique characteristics of carrying independent information channels and exhibiting higher security and stability during propagation. In this study, we theoretically simulated and experimentally generated DR–PVBs with various topological charges. We investigated the propagation characteristics of these beams under von Karman spectrum turbulence conditions through numerical simulations based on multiple-phase screen methods. The effects of different inner and outer ring topological charges and varying turbulence intensities on the intensity distribution, beam spreading, and beam wander of DR–PVBs over different propagation distances were examined and compared with double-ring Gaussian vortex beams (DR–GVBs). The simulation results indicate that within a propagation range of 0–500 m, the effective radius of DR–PVBs with different topological charges remains essentially unchanged and stable. For propagation distances exceeding 1000 m, DR–PVBs exhibit superior beam wander characteristics compared to DR–GVBs. Additionally, two occurrences of self-focusing effects were observed during propagation, each enhancing beam stability and reducing the beam spreading and beam wander of the DR–PVBs. This study provides valuable insights for applications of DR–PVBs in optical communication, optical manipulation, and optical measurement. Full article

Perfect vortex beams (PVBs) possess the advantage of a stable light field distribution regardless of their topological charges, and thus they are extensively utilized in various applications, such as free-space optical communication, optical tweezers and laser processing. Herein, we report a new strategy to generate and modulate PVBs using coherent beam combining (CBC) technology. Both piston phase and tilting phase controlling methods have been successfully employed, and the corresponding properties of the generated PVBs have been fully investigated. Moreover, the number and position of the gaps in fractional perfect vortex beams (FPVBs) could be precisely controlled, and the relationships between these modulated parameters and the performance of FPVBs are uncovered. These simulation analysis results demonstrate the potential for flexible modulation of PVBs or FPVBs in the CBC system, indicating promising prospects for coherent beam arrays (CBAs) in laser beam shaping and achieving high-power structured light. Full article

We have experimentally created perfect vortex beams (PVBs) by Fourier transformation of Bessel–Gaussian vortex beams, which are generated by modulating the fundamental Gaussian beam with the spiral phase plates and the axicons, respectively. Although the method has been used many times by other authors, as far as we know, few people pay attention to the quantitative relationship between the control parameters of the PVB and ring width. The effects of the waist radius of the fundamental Gaussian beam w_g, base angle of the axicon γ, and focal length of the lens f on the spot parameters (ring radius ρ, and ring half-width Δ) of PVB are systematically studied. The beam pattern of the generated Bessel–Gaussian beam for different propagation distances behind the axicon and the fundamental Gaussian beam w_g is presented. We showed experimentally that the ring radius ρ increases linearly with the increase of the base angle γ and focal length f, while the ring half-width Δ decreases with the increase of the fundamental beam waist radius w_g, and increases with enlarging the focal length f. We confirmed the topological charge (TC) of the PVB by the interferogram between the PVB and the reference fundamental Gaussian beam. We also studied experimentally that the size of the generated PVB in the Fourier plane is independent of the TCs. Our approach to generate the PVB has the advantages of high-power tolerance and high efficiency. Full article

Vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have gained much interest in optical communications because they can be used to expand the number of multiplexing channels and greatly improve the transmission capacity. However, the number of states used for OAM-based communication is generally limited by the imperfect OAM generation, transmission, and demultiplexing methods. In this work, we proposed a dense space-division multiplexing (DSDM) scheme to further increase the transmission capacity and transmission capacity density of free space optical communications with a small range of OAM modes exploiting a multi-ring perfect vortex (MRPV). The proposed MRPV is generated using a pixel checkerboard complex amplitude modulation method that simultaneously encodes amplitude and phase information in a phase-only hologram. The four rings of the MRPV are mutually independent channels that transmit OAM beams under the condition of occupying only one spatial position, and the OAM mode transmitted in these spatial channels can be efficiently demodulated using a multilayer annular aperture. The effect of atmospheric turbulence on the MRPV was also analyzed, and the results showed that the four channels of the MRPV can be effectively separated under weak turbulence conditions. Under the condition of limited available space and OAM states, the proposed DSDM strategy exploiting MRPV might inspire wide optical communication applications exploiting the space dimension of light beams. Full article

The characteristics of high-power vortex Bessel beams in the terahertz range ($\lambda =141$ μm) obtained with the use of diffractive axicons (DAs) illuminated by a Gaussian beam of the Novosibirsk free-electron laser were studied. Two of the three possible types of DA recently described in our previous paper, namely, binary spiral silicon axicons (BAs), forming beams with a topological charge l equal to 0–4 and 9, and a diamond “holographic” axicon (HA), forming a beam with $l=9$, were used in the experiments. These axicons formed beams whose cross sections in the region of inner Bessel rings were close to those of ideal Bessel beams, but their intensities varied in azimuth with a frequency of l and $2l$ for the BAs and HA, respectively. However, in the case of the BAs, the beams had a pronounced helical structure at the periphery, whereas for the HA, the beam was axisymmetric. By focusing these beams with a lens, we studied the structure of the so-called “perfect” beams (PBs). While an ideal Bessel beam exhibits a PB as a thin ring, in the case of the BAs, we observed a broadened ring structure consisting of $2l$ short spirals, and for the HA, we observed a narrow ring with $2l$ maxima in azimuth. A comparison of the numerical calculations and experiments showed that the observed azimuthal intensity variations can be attributed to inaccuracies in the preparation of the axicon relief and/or discrepancies between the calculated and actual wavelengths, within a few percent. The results of this work enable the establishment of quality requirements for axicon manufacture and the appropriate selection of the axicon type in accordance with the requirements for the beam. Full article

Featuring shorter wavelengths and high photon energy, ultraviolet (UV) light enables many exciting applications including photolithography, sensing, high-resolution imaging, and optical communication. The conventional methods of UV light manipulation through bulky optical components limit their integration in fast-growing on-chip systems. The advent of metasurfaces promised unprecedented control of electromagnetic waves from microwaves to visible spectrums. However, the availability of suitable and lossless dielectric material for the UV domain hindered the realization of highly efficient UV metasurfaces. Here, a bandgap-engineered silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) material is used as a best-suited candidate for all-dielectric highly efficient UV metasurfaces. To demonstrate the wavefront manipulation capability of the Si₃N₄ for the UV spectrum, we design and numerically simulate multiple all-dielectric metasurfaces for the perfect vortex beam generation by combing multiple phase profiles into a single device. For different numerical apertures ($NA=0.3\mathrm{and}0.7$), it is concluded that the diffracted light from the metasurfaces with different topological charges results in an annular intensity profile with the same ring radius. It is believed that the presented Si₃N₄ materials and proposed design methodology for PV beam-generating metasurfaces will be applicable in various integrated optical and nanophotonic applications such as information processing, high-resolution spectroscopy, and on-chip optical communication. Full article

Terahertz (THz) orbital angular momentum (OAM) technology provides promising applications in future wireless communication with large bandwidth and high capacity. However, the ring radius of the conventional THz vortex beam is related to the topological charge, limiting the co-propagation of multiple OAM modes in the THz communication systems. Although the perfect vortex beam (PVB) based on traditional methods can solve this problem, they are usually bulky and unstable. Here, we demonstrate two PVB generators based on a single all-dielectric metasurface to obtain polarization-independent PVB and spin multiplexed PVB, respectively. The former regulates the propagation phase by using isotropic unit cells; the latter simultaneously manipulates the propagation and geometric phase to achieve the spin-decoupled phase control by arranging anisotropic unit cells. In addition, we also demonstrate the stable generation of a perfect Poincaré beam with arbitrary polarization and phase distribution on a hybrid-order Poincaré Sphere via a spin-decoupled metasurface, which is achieved by the linear superposition of two PVBs with orthogonal circular polarizations. The proposed scheme provides a compact and efficient platform for the generation and superposition of PVBs in THz region, and will speed up the progress of THz communication systems, complex light field generation, and quantum information sciences. Full article

Transformation of a Bessel beam by a lens results in the formation of a “perfect” vortex beam (PVB) in the focal plane of the lens. The PVB has a single-ring cross-section and carries an orbital angular momentum (OAM) equal to the OAM of the “parent” beam. PVBs have numerous applications based on the assumption of their ideal ring-type structure. For instance, we proposed using terahertz PVBs to excite vortex surface plasmon polaritons propagating along cylindrical conductors and the creation of plasmon multiplex communication lines in the future (Comput. Opt. 2019, 43, 992). Recently, we demonstrated the formation of PVBs in the terahertz range using a Bessel beam produced using a spiral binary silicon axicon (Phys. Rev. A 2017, 96, 023846). It was shown that, in that case, the PVB was not annular, but was split into nested spiral segments, which was obviously a consequence of the method of Bessel beam generation. The search for methods of producing perfect beams with characteristics approaching theoretically possible ones is a topical task. Since for the terahertz range, there are no devices like spatial modulators of light in the visible range, the main method for controlling the mode composition of beams is the use of diffractive optical elements. In this work, we investigated the characteristics of perfect beams, the parent beams being quasi-Bessel beams created by three types of diffractive phase axicons made of high-resistivity silicon: binary, kinoform, and “holographic”. The amplitude-phase distributions of the field in real perfect beams were calculated numerically in the approximation of the scalar diffraction theory. An analytical expression was obtained for the case of the binary axicon. It was shown that a distribution closest to an ideal vortex was obtained using a holographic axicon. The resulting distributions were compared with experimental and theoretical distributions of the evanescent field of a plasmon near the gold–zinc sulfide–air surface at different thicknesses of the dielectric layer, and recommendations for experiments were given. Full article

A generalized contour-sum method has been proposed to measure the topological charge (TC) of an optical vortex (OV) beam using a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS). Moreover, a recent study extended it to be workable for measuring an aberrated OV beam. However, when the OV beam suffers from severe distortion, the closed path for circulation calculation becomes crucial. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of five closed path determination methods, including watershed transformation, maximum average-intensity circle extraction, a combination of watershed transformation and maximum average-intensity circle extraction, and perfectly round circles assignation. In the experiments, we used a phase-only spatial light modulator to generate OV beams and aberrations, while an SH-WFS was used to measure the intensity profile and phase slopes. The results show that when determining the TC values of distorted donut-shaped OV beams, the watershed-transformed maximum average-intensity circle method performed the best, and the maximum average-intensity circle method and the watershed transformation method came second and third, while the worst was the perfect circles assignation method. The discussions that explain our experimental results are also given. Full article

Based on the Snyder and Mitchell model, a closed-form propagation expression of astigmatic sin-Gaussian beams through strongly nonlocal nonlinear media (SNNM) is derived. The evolutions of the intensity distributions and the corresponding wave front dislocations are discussed analytically and numerically. It is generally proved that the light field distribution varies periodically with the propagation distance. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the astigmatism and edge dislocation nested in the initial sin-Gaussian beams greatly influence the pattern configurations and phase singularities during propagation. In particular, it is found that, when the beam parameters are properly selected, a vortex beam with perfect doughnut-shaped profile can be obtained for astigmatic sin-Gaussian beams with two-lobe pattern propagating in SNNM. Full article