Hou Tianyue, Chang Qi, Yu Tao, Long Jinhu, Chang Hongxiang, Ma Pengfei, Su Rongtao, Ma Yanxing, Zhou Pu
Opt Express. 2021 Apr 26;29(9):13428-13440. doi: 10.1364/OE.422635.
Light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have important implications for future classical and quantum systems. In many applications, controlled switching of the OAM state at high speed is crucial, while accelerating the switching rate presents a long-standing challenge. Here we present a method for flexibly switching the OAM state of light based on a coherent laser array system. In the system, the output structured light beam is tailored by the coherent combination of array elements. By employing an OAM mode sorting assisted phase control subsystem, which continuously performs the optimization algorithm, the dynamic wavefront distortion of the combined OAM beam could be compensated. Meanwhile, our approach allows one to achieve fast states switching of the combined OAM beam via programming the cost function of the algorithm. The results of Monte-Carlo simulations demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, and the mode purity and power scaling potential of the controllably generated OAM beam are discussed. This theoretical work could be beneficial to the future implementation of rapidly switchable OAM beams at practical output power.
携带轨道角动量（OAM）的光束对未来的经典和量子系统具有重要意义。在许多应用中，高速控制OAM态的切换至关重要，而提高切换速率是一个长期存在的挑战。在此，我们提出一种基于相干激光阵列系统灵活切换光OAM态的方法。在该系统中，输出的结构化光束通过阵列元件的相干组合进行定制。通过采用OAM模式分选辅助相位控制子系统，该子系统持续执行优化算法，可以补偿组合OAM光束的动态波前畸变。同时，我们的方法允许通过对算法的代价函数进行编程来实现组合OAM光束的快速态切换。蒙特卡罗模拟结果证明了所提方法的可行性，并讨论了可控生成的OAM光束的模式纯度和功率缩放潜力。这项理论工作可能有助于未来在实际输出功率下实现快速可切换OAM光束。
