Optical counterpart of the Foucault pendulum

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a vortex interferometer with phase-conjugating mirror in a rotating frame, showing how interference pattern motion can detect slow rotations with enhanced sensitivity due to vortex properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel vortex interferometer setup using phase-conjugating mirrors for improved rotation detection sensitivity.

Findings

Interference pattern moves in rotating frames due to angular momentum exchange.

Sensitivity improves proportionally with vortex topological charge.

Potential for enhanced rotation sensing compared to Michelson interferometry.

Abstract

The twin beam vortex interferometer with phase-conjugating mirror is analyzed in rotating reference frame.Circular motion of the interference pattern occurs due to exchange of the angular momenta between photons and interferometer. Using the concept of the $ideal$ phase-conjugating mirror it is shown that motion of the helical interference pattern of the interacting vortex photons with topological charge $\ell$ may be used for the detection of the slow rotations. The higher density of interference fringes may improve the sensitivity by factor containing $2 \ell$ compared to the conventional Michelson interferometry.