Measuring mode indices of a partially coherent vortex beam with Hanbury Brown and Twiss type experiment

It is known that the cross-correlation function (CCF) of a partially coherent vortex (PCV) beam shows a robust link with the radial and azimuthal mode indices. However, the previous proposals are difficult to measure the CCF in practical systems, especially in the case of astronomical objects. In th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied physics letters Vol. 108; no. 5; pp. 51107 - 51110
Main Authors Liu, Ruifeng, Wang, Feiran, Chen, Dongxu, Wang, Yunlong, Zhou, Yu, Gao, Hong, Zhang, Pei, Li, Fuli
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Melville American Institute of Physics 01.02.2016
Subjects
Angular momentum
Applied physics
ASTRONOMY
BEAMS
Celestial bodies
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
Coherence
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
Electron beams
ORBITAL ANGULAR MOMENTUM
PHOTONS
Space communication
Vortices
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:It is known that the cross-correlation function (CCF) of a partially coherent vortex (PCV) beam shows a robust link with the radial and azimuthal mode indices. However, the previous proposals are difficult to measure the CCF in practical systems, especially in the case of astronomical objects. In this letter, we demonstrate experimentally that the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect can be used to measure the mode indices of the original vortex beam and investigate the relationship between the spatial coherent width and the characterization of CCF of the PCV beam. The technique we exploit is quite efficient and robust, and it may be useful in the field of free space communication and astronomy which are related to the photon's orbital angular momentum.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4941422