Magnetic-field-induced rotation of light with orbital angular momentum

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to rotate light with orbital angular momentum using magnetic-field-induced birefringence in rubidium vapor, enabling precise weak magnetic field measurements with high accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique for rotating OAM light via magnetic birefringence, expanding applications in magnetic sensing and optical communication.

Findings

Achieved magnetic field measurement precision of 0.8 mGauss.

Method effective for magnetic fields weaker than 0.5 Gauss.

Theoretical predictions align well with experimental results.

Abstract

Light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) has attractive applications in the fields of precise optical measurements and high capacity optical communications. We study the rotation of a light beam propagating in warm 87Rb atomic vapor using a method based on magnetic-field-induced circular birefringence. The dependence of the rotation angle on the magnetic field makes it appropriate for weak magnetic field measurements. We quote a detailed theoretical description that agrees well with the experimental observations. The experiment shown here provides a method to measure the magnetic field intensity precisely and expands the application of OAM-carrying light. This technique has advantage in measurement of magnetic field weaker than 0.5 Gauss, and the precision we achieved is 0.8 mGauss.