Abstract

Laser light with a Laguerre-Gaussian amplitude distribution is found to have a well-defined orbital angular momentum. An astigmatic optical system may be used to transform a high-order Laguerre-Gaussian mode into a high-order Hermite-Gaussian mode reversibly. An experiment is proposed to measure the mechanical torque induced by the transfer of orbital angular momentum associated with such a transformation.

Keywords

PhysicsAngular momentumOrbital angular momentum of lightAngular momentum of lightOrbital angular momentum multiplexingTotal angular momentum quantum numberLaguerre polynomialsAngular momentum couplingGaussianAzimuthal quantum numberHermite polynomialsOpticsClassical mechanicsQuantum mechanics

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Publication Info

Year
1992
Type
article
Volume
45
Issue
11
Pages
8185-8189
Citations
9816
Access
Closed

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Cite This

L. Allen, Marco W. Beijersbergen, R. J. C. Spreeuw et al. (1992). Orbital angular momentum of light and the transformation of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes. Physical Review A , 45 (11) , 8185-8189. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.45.8185

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/physreva.45.8185