Molecular Quantum Interface for Storing and Manipulating Ultrashort Optical Vortex

• Published in: Laser & photonics reviews Vol. 17; no. 2
• Main Authors: Trawi, Firas, Billard, Franck, Faucher, Olivier, Béjot, Pierre, Hertz, Edouard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.02.2023; Wiley-VCH Verlag
• Subjects: Angular momentum; Broadband; field‐free molecular alignment; Light beams; Molecular structure; Optical communication; orbital angular momentum; Physics; Room temperature; ultrashort optical vortex
• ISSN: 1863-8880; 1863-8899
• DOI: 10.1002/lpor.202200525

Light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have become over the past few years a subject of widespread interest with unprecedented applications in various fields such as optical communication, super‐resolution imaging, optical tweezers, or quantum processing. In the present work it is demonstrated that gas‐phase molecules can be used as a quantum interface to store an OAM carried by an ultrashort laser pulse. The interplay between spin angular momentum and OAM is exploited to encode the spatial phase information of light beams into rotational coherences of molecules. The embedded spatial structure is restored on‐demand with a reading beam by taking advantage of field‐free molecular alignment. The strategy is successfully demonstrated in CO2 molecules at room temperature. Apart from applications to broadband coherent buffer memory, this method opens new functionalities in terms of optical processing and versatile control of OAM fields as well as for a deeper understanding of their role on various molecular processes. Gas‐phase molecules are exploited as a quantum interface to store orbital angular momentum (OAM) carried by ultrashort light beams. The storage exploits the mechanism of laser‐induced field‐free molecular alignment so as to produce a molecular q‐plate that revives periodically. This method opens new modalities in terms of optical processing and versatile control of OAM fields.