Generation of a lattice of polarization coupled optical vortex beams
Dusan Sarenac, IQC
Beams of light, atoms, neutrons and electrons can carry orbital angular momentum parallel to their propagation axis. Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) waves have demonstrated a number of applications in microscopy, encoding and multiplexing of communications, and manipulation of matter. In addition, coupling a two-level system to beams carrying OAM permits a wealth of new applications. Polarization-orbit states of light beams may be prepared via "q-plates"; this is similar to preparing spin-orbit states via a space-variant Wien filter for electrons or via a quadrupole magnetic field for neutrons. However, the applicability of these beams is limited to regions close to the one fixed axis in space about which the orbital angular momentum is quantized. In this talk I will describe our recent work where we overcome that limitation by producing a beam with a lattice of such axes where the lattice parameters can be programmed at will, e.g., to match the characteristic scales of a target material. We have applied our newly developed protocols in an experimental realization of a lattice of polarization coupled optical vortex beams.