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Controlled generation of higher-order Poincaré sphere beams from a laser

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 327–332 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The angular momentum of light can be described by positions on a higher-order Poincaré sphere, where superpositions of spin and orbital angular momentum states give rise to laser beams that have many applications, from microscopy to materials processing. Many techniques exist to create such beams but none so far allow their creation at the source. Here we report on a new class of laser that is able to generate all states on the higher-order Poincaré sphere. We exploit geometric phase control inside a laser cavity to map polarization to orbital angular momentum, demonstrating that the orbital angular momentum degeneracy of a standard laser cavity may be broken, producing pure orbital angular momentum beams, and that generalized vector vortex beams may be created with high purity at the source. This work paves the way to new lasers for structured light based on intracavity geometric phase control.

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Figure 1: HOP sphere representation of vector vortex beams.
Figure 2: Laser concept.
Figure 3: Mode purity of OAM beams.
Figure 4: Measured HOP sphere beams.
Figure 5: HOP sphere beams with a larger topological charge.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR National Laser Centre, PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Darryl Naidoo, Filippus S. Roux, Angela Dudley & Igor Litvin

  2. School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa

    Filippus S. Roux, Angela Dudley & Andrew Forbes

  3. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant'Angelo, via Cintia, Napoli, 80126, Italy

    Bruno Piccirillo & Lorenzo Marrucci

  4. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-SPIN, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant'Angelo, via Cintia, Napoli, 80126, Italy

    Lorenzo Marrucci

Authors
  1. Darryl Naidoo
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  2. Filippus S. Roux
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Contributions

A.F. conceived the idea and supervised the project; D.N. performed the experiments with assistance from I.L. and A.D.; F.S.R. and I.L. performed the mathematical analysis; D.N. performed the data analysis; B.P. and L.M. manufactured the q-plate and assisted with analysis; A.F. and D.N. wrote the paper with inputs from all co-authors.

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Correspondence to Andrew Forbes.

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Naidoo, D., Roux, F., Dudley, A. et al. Controlled generation of higher-order Poincaré sphere beams from a laser. Nature Photon 10, 327–332 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.37

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