Transverse orbital angular momentum and polarization entangled spatiotemporal structured light

TL;DR

This paper experimentally demonstrates the orthogonality of transverse orbital angular momentum modes in spatiotemporal structured light and develops methods to create and analyze entangled states, advancing higher-dimensional classical entanglement techniques.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental verification of t-OAM orthogonality and develops novel methods to generate and characterize t-OAM and polarization entangled light.

Findings

Orthogonality of t-OAM modes confirmed experimentally

Methods for creating t-OAM and polarization entangled states developed

Supports potential for higher-dimensional classical entanglement

Abstract

Intra-system entanglement occurs between non-separable modes within the same system. For optical systems, the various degrees of freedom of light represent different modes, and the potential use of light to create higher dimensional classical entangle states offers a promising potential to drive new technological developments. In this work, we present experimental results demonstrating the orthogonality between transverse orbital angular momentum (t-OAM) of different spatiotemporal topological charges, a previously unverified property of t-OAM. Based on those results, we developed methods to create and characterize a novel family of t-OAM and polarization entangled spatiotemporal structured light. We further provide theoretical analysis to support our study of the entanglement between those modes. By demonstrating the feasibility of leveraging t-OAM as a new family of modes for classical entanglement, our work represents a new advancement towards higher dimensional classical entanglement strategies.