Physical mechanism for the geometric phase in terms of angular momentum exchange is elucidated. It is argued that the geometric phase arising out of the cyclic changes in the tranverse mode space of the Gaussian light beams is a manifestation of the cycles in the momentum space of the light. Nonconservation of angular momentum in the spontaneous parametric down-conversion for the classical light beams is proposed to be related with the geometric phase.
The nature of intrinsic/extrinsic character of angular momentum is defined in terms of the kind of the associated rotational energy of the light. The salient features of the spin energy of light and photon are highlighted. Spin angular momentum is intrinsic while orbital angular momentum possesses quasi-intrinsicness only if the vortex-like singularities are present. The claimed spin to orbital angular momentum conversion is interpreted in terms of spin redirection geometric phase. It is pointed out that this interpretation validates our angular momentum holonomy conjecture.
Recent reports on the intriguing features of vector vortex bearing beams are analyzed using geometric phases in optics. It is argued that the spin redirection phase induced circular birefringence is the origin of topological phase singularities arising in the inhomogeneous polarization patterns. A unified picture of recent results is presented based on this proposition. Angular momentum shift within the light beam (OAM) has exact equivalence with the angular momentum holonomy associated with the geometric phase consistent with our conjecture.
A simple, and elegant geometrical representation is developed to describe the concept of coherence and squeezing for angular momentum operators. Angular momentum squeezed states were obtained by applying Bogoliubov transformation on the angular momentum coherent states in Schwinger representation [Phys. Rev. {\bf{A 51}} (1995)]. We present the geometrical phase space description of angular momentum coherent and squeezed states and relate with the harmonic oscillator. The unique feature of our geometric representation is the portraying of the expectation values of the angular momentum component…
Localized photon states have non-zero angular momentum that varies with the non-unique choice of a transverse basis and is changed by gauge transformations of the geometric vector potential $\mathbf{a}$. The position operator must depend on the choice of gauge, but a complete gauge transformation of a physically distinct state has no observable effects. The potential $\mathbf{a}$ has a Dirac string singularity that is related to an optical vortex of the electric field.
We develop practical schemes for the measurement of the covariance matrix for intrinsic angular-momentum variables in quantum optics. We particularize this approach to two-beam polarimetry and interferometry, as well as to ensembles of two-level atoms interacting with classical fields. We show the practical advantages of noisy simultaneous measurements.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate that a Mach-Zehnder interferometer composed of polarized beam splitters and a pentaprism in the place of one of the mirrors works as a linear optical quantum controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. To perform the information processing, the polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the photons act as the control and target qubits, respectively. The readout process is simple, requiring only a linear polarizer and a triangular diffractive aperture before detection. The viability and stability of the experiment makes the present proposal a valuable candidate…
We present a theoretical model for the spatial mode dynamics of an optical parametric oscillator under injection of orbital angular momentum. This process is then interpreted in terms of an interesting picture based on a Poincare representation of first order spatial modes. The spatial properties of the down-converted fields can be easily understood from their symmetries in this geometric representation. By considering the adiabatic mode conversion of the injected signal, we also predict the occurrence of a geometric phase conjugation in the down-converted beams. An experimental setup to measu…
For a charge-monopole pair, though the definition of the orbital angular momentum is different from the usual one, and the transverse part of the momentum that includes the vector potential as an additive term turns out to be the so-called geometric momentum that is under intensive study recently. For the charge is constrained on the spherical surface with monopole at the origin, the commutation relations between all components of geometric momentum and the orbital angular momentum satisfy the $so(3,1)$ algebra. With construction of the geometrically infinitesimal displacement operator based o…
Orbital angular momentum of photons is an intriguing system for the storage and transmission of quantum information, but it is rapidly degraded by atmospheric turbulence. We explore the ability of adaptive optics to compensate for this disturbance by measuring and correcting cumulative phase shifts in the wavefront. These shifts can be represented as a sum of Zernike functions; we analyze the residual errors after correcting up to a certain number of Zernike modes when an orbital angular momentum state is transmitted through a turbulent atmosphere whose density fluctuations have a Kolmogorov s…
A quantum effect characterized by a dependence of the angular frequency associated with the confinement of a neutral particle to a quantum ring on the quantum numbers of the system and the Aharonov-Casher geometric phase is discussed. Then, it is shown that persistent spin currents can arise in a two-dimensional quantum ring in the presence of a Coulomb-type potential. A particular contribution to the persistent spin currents arises from the dependence of the angular frequency on the geometric quantum phase.
The angular momentum density and flux of light in a dispersive, rotationally symmetric medium are derived from Noether's theorem. Optical angular momentum in a dispersive medium has no simple relation to optical linear momentum, even if the medium is homogeneous. A circularly polarized monochromatic beam in a homogeneous, dispersive medium carries a spin angular momentum of $\pm\hbar$ per energy $\hbarω$, as in vacuum. This result demonstrates the non-trivial interplay of dispersive contributions to optical angular momentum and energy.
We study the transfer of angular momentum of guided photons to a two-level atom with an electric quadrupole transition near an optical nanofiber. We show that the generation of the axial orbital torque of the driving guided field on the atom is governed by the internal-state selection rules for the quadrupole transition and by the angular momentum conservation law with the photon angular momentum given in the Minkowski formulation. We find that the torque depends on the photon angular momentum, the change in the angular momentum of the atomic internal state, and the quadrupole-transition Rabi …
In the spirit of the thin-layer quantization approach, we give the formula of the geometric influences of a particle confined to a curved surface embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space. The geometric contributions can result from the reduced commutation relation between the acted function depending on normal variable and the normal derivative. According to the formula, we obtain the geometric potential, geometric momentum, geometric orbital angular momentum, geometric linear Rashba and cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings. As an example, a truncated cone surface is considered. We find…
Photon carries linear momentum and angular momentum simultaneously. Within the light-matter interaction process, exchange of linear momentum results in optical forces, whereas exchange of angular momentum leads to optical torques. Use of optical forces (light pressure or damping) have been long and wide in quantum optomechanics, however, those of optical torque and optical angular momentum are not. Here we propose a theoretical framework based on optical angular momentum and optical torques to derive the Hamiltonians of cavity orbital and spin angular momentum optomechanical systems, respectiv…
We propose a scheme for generation of arbitrary coherent superposition of vortex states in Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) using the orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of light. We devise a scheme to generate coherent superpositions of two counter-rotating OAM states of light using known experimental techniques. We show that a specially designed Raman scheme allows transfer of the optical vortex superposition state onto an initially non-rotating BEC. This creates an arbitrary and coherent superposition of a vortex and anti-vortex pair in the BEC. The ideas presented here could be extended t…
We propose a new configuration for realizing torsional optomechanics: an optically trapped windmill-shaped dielectric interacting with Laguerre-Gaussian cavity modes containing both angular and radial nodes. In contrast to existing schemes, our method can couple mechanical oscillators smaller than the optical beam waist to the in-principle unlimited orbital angular momentum that can be carried by a single photon, and thus generate substantial optomechanical interactions. Combining the advantages of small mass, large coupling, and low clamping losses, our work conceptually opens the way for the…
Two entangled electron spins, or qubits, are analyzed in terms of ordinary three-dimensional space geometric properties, as are the angles between their angular momenta. This formulation allows concurrence, a measure of quantum entanglement, to be expressed as expectation values of trigonometric functions of the azimuthal angle between the two angular momenta.
Stated simply the paradox is as follows: it is clear that the orbital angular momentum of a light beam in its direction of propagation is an intrinsic quantity, and therefore has the same value everywhere in the beam. How then can a Gaussian beam, with precisely zero orbital angular momentum, drive a (single-photon) quadrupole transition which requires the transfer of angular momentum 2$\hbar$ to an absorbing atom?
We demonstrate experimentally an optical process in which the spin angular momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wavefront helicity controlled by the input polarization. This phenomenon requires the interaction of light with matter that is both optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic. The underlying physics is also associated with the so-called Pancharatnam-Berry geometrical phases involved in any inhomogeneous transformation of the optical polarization.
We study here fractional orbital angular momentum (OAM) states in electron vortex beams (EVB) from the perspective of geometric phase. We have considered the skyrmionic model of an electron, where it is depicted as a scalar electron orbiting around the vortex line, which gives rise to the spin degrees of freedom. The geometric phase acquired by the scalar electron orbiting around the vortex line induces the spin-orbit interaction, which leads to the fractional OAM states with non-quantized monopole charge associated with the corresponding geometric phase. This involves tilted vortex in EVBs. T…
We calculate analytically and numerically the axial orbital and spin torques of guided light on a two-level atom near an optical nanofiber. We show that the generation of these torques is governed by the angular momentum conservation law in the Minkowski formulation. The orbital torque on the atom near the fiber has a contribution from the average recoil of spontaneously emitted photons. Photon angular momentum and atomic spin angular momentum can be converted into atomic orbital angular momentum. The orbital and spin angular momenta of the guided field are not transferred separately to the or…
We propose a method to selectively populate a large angular momentum state of ultracold atoms (each with an orbital angular momentum $l \approx 2 \hbar$) in the Mott regime of a two-dimensional optical lattice. This is done by periodically modulating the lattice amplitude and implementing an additional rectangular lattice of shorter wavelength at an angle of $π/4$. The specific pulse sequences are designed using a four-level model for each well and are implemented sequentially. The results are confirmed with numerical simulations of the full Schroedinger equation. The methods of this paper are…
Experimental results from the generation of Raman sidebands using optical vortices are presented. By generating two sets of sidebands originating from different locations in a Raman active crystal, one set containing optical orbital angular momentum and the other serving as a reference, a Young's double slit experiment was simultaneously realized for each sideband. The interference between the two sets of sidebands was used to determine the helicity and topological charge in each order. Topological charges in all orders were found to be discrete and follow selection rules predicted by a cascad…
For paraxial and non-paraxial light, numerous measures of electromagnetic attribute are expressible in terms of photon annihilation and creation. Accordingly, energy, angular momentum and chirality measures acquire a consistent interpretation. From the photonic nature of light, it emerges that an infinite hierarchy of spin-type measures depend on a difference in number operators for modes of opposing helicity, pure circular polarization giving maximal values. Measures of orbital angular momentum are determined by a sum of corresponding number operators. By analysis of electric and magnetic fea…
We report on the generation of flower (wheel) modes, which manifest coupled orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, from a vortex pumped optical parametric oscillator simply by employing a pump source with a short temporal coherence time. This vortex oscillator was also developed to generate a further higher-order vortex signal output with $l_s=2-4$ by replacement of the pump source with a longer coherence time. The signal and idler outputs were tuned within wavelength ranges of 745-955 nm and 1200-1855 nm, respectively. The maximum signal output energy of 1.2 mJ was measured with an optical eff…
We propose a method to create higher orbital states of ultracold atoms in the Mott regime of an optical lattice. This is done by periodically modulating the position of the trap minima (known as shaking) and controlling the interference term of the lasers creating the lattice. These methods are combined with techniques of shortcuts to adiabaticity. As an example of this, we show specifically how to create an anti-ferromagnetic type ordering of angular momentum states of atoms. The specific pulse sequences are designed using Lewis-Riesenfeld invariants and a four-level model for each well. The …
We report the experimental preparation of optical superpositions of high orbital angular momenta(OAM). Our method is based on the use of spatial light modulator to modify the standard Laguerre-Gaussian beams to bear excessive phase helices. We demonstrate the surprising performance of a traditional Mach-Zehnder interferometer with one inserted Dove prism to identify these superposed twisted lights, where the high OAM numbers as well as their possible superpositions can be inferred directly from the interfered bright multiring lattices. The possibility of present scheme working at photon-count …
This paper develops, in precise quantum electrodynamic terms, photonic attributes of the "optical chirality density", one of several measures long known to be conserved quantities for a vacuum electromagnetic field. The analysis lends insights into some recent interpretations of chiroptical experiments, in which this measure, and an associated chirality flux, have been treated as representing physically distinctive "superchiral" phenomena. In the fully quantized formalism the chirality density is promoted to operator status, whose exploration with reference to an arbitrary polarization basis r…
We present a general, Gaussian spatial mode propagation formalism for describing the generation of higher order multi-spatial-mode beams generated during nonlinear interactions. Furthermore, to implement the theory, we simulate optical angular momentum transfer interactions, and show how one can optimize the interaction to reduce the undesired modes. Past theoretical treatments of this problem have often been phenomenological, at best. Here we present an exact solution for the single-pass no-cavity regime, in which the the nonlinear interaction is not overly strong. We apply our theory to two …
In the last decades unprecedented progress in the manipulation of spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light has been achieved, enabling a number of applications ranging from classical and quantum communication, to optical microscopy and super-resolution imaging. Metasurfaces are artificially engineered 2D metamaterials with designed subwavelength-size building blocks, which allow precise control of optical fields with unparalleled flexibility and performance. The reduced dimensionality of optical metasurfaces enables new physics and leads to functionalities and ap…
When light is transmitted through optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic media the spatial distribution of light can be modified according to its input polarization state. A complete analysis of this process, based on the paraxial approximation, is presented, and we show how it can be exploited to produce a spin-controlled-change in the orbital angular momentum of light beams propagating in patterned space-variant-optical-axis phase plates. We also unveil a new effect. The development of a strong modulation in the angular momentum change upon variation of the optical path through the phase pl…
Light with orbital angular momentum (OAM) has great potentials in both classical and quantum optical communications such as enhancing the transmission capacity of a single communication channel because of its unlimited dimensions. Based on OAM conservation in second order nonlinear interaction processes, we create a classical to quantum optical network link in OAM degree of freedoms of light via sum frequency generation (SFG) following by a spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). A coherent OAM-carrying beams at telecom wavelength 1550nm is up-converted to 525.5nm OAM-carrying beams in …
Recent experiments involving the interaction of optical vortices with atoms in quadrupole transitions have been shown to be accompanied by the exchange of orbital angular momentum (OAM) between the electronic states of the atom and the optical vortex field. Earlier work by both theory and experiment had ruled out the transfer of a vortex OAM to the electronic degrees of freedom in an electric dipole atomic transition and it has been confirmed that the lowest multipolar order involving an OAM transfer to the electronic motion is indeed the electric quadrupole. Hitherto, the quadrupole transitio…
