Active sorting of orbital angular momentum states of light with cascaded tunable resonators

TL;DR

This paper introduces a wavelength-independent, tunable optical cavity method for dynamically sorting orbital angular momentum states of light, enabling reconfigurable, non-destructive multiplexing suitable for advanced optical applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel, cascaded resonator system that dynamically sorts OAM states without altering them, advancing optical communication and quantum optics technologies.

Findings

Demonstrated dynamic, wavelength-independent OAM sorting using tunable resonators.

Showed cascaded resonators can handle multiple OAM states simultaneously.

The method preserves the original state of light signals for further processing.

Abstract

Light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) has been shown to be of use in a disparate range of fields ranging from astronomy to optical trapping, and as a promising new dimension for multiplexing signals in optical communications and data storage. A challenge to many of these applications is a reliable and dynamic method that sorts incident OAM states without altering them. Here we report a wavelength-independent technique capable of dynamically filtering individual OAM states based on the resonant transmission of a tunable optical cavity. The cavity length is piezo-controlled to facilitate dynamic reconfiguration, and the sorting process leaves both the transmitted and reflected signals in their original states for subsequent processing. As a result, we also show that a reconfigurable sorting network can be constructed by cascading such optical resonators to handle multiple OAM states simultaneously. This approach to sorting OAM states is amenable to integration into optical communication networks and has implications in quantum optics, astronomy, optical data storage and optical trapping.