Angular acceleration with radial dependence of twisted light

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to generate structured light with radially dependent angular acceleration using superpositions of Laguerre-Gaussian modes, confirmed through theoretical analysis and experiments, with potential applications in optical manipulation and metrology.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to control angular acceleration in structured light beams with radial dependence, combining theoretical concepts and experimental validation.

Findings

Outer beam rings rotate opposite to inner petals.

Propagation dynamics involve complex angular acceleration behavior.

Experimental results confirm theoretical predictions.

Abstract

While photons travel in a straight line at constant velocity in free-space, the intensity profile of structured light may be tailored for acceleration in any degree of freedom. Here we propose a simple approach to control the angular acceleration of light. Using Laguerre-Gaussian modes as our twisted beams carrying orbital angular momentum, we show that superpositions of opposite handedness result in a radially dependent angular acceleration as they pass through a focus (waist plane). Due to conservation of orbital angular momentum we find that propagation dynamics are complex despite the free-space medium: the outer part of the beam (rings) rotates in an opposite direction to the inner part (petals), and while the outer part accelerates so the inner part decelerates. We outline the concepts theoretically and confirm them experimentally. Such exotic structured light beams are topical due to their many applications, e.g., optical trapping and tweezing, metrology and fundamental studies in optics.