Spectral control of the orbital angular momentum of a laser beam based on 3D properties of spiral phase plates fabricated for an infrared wavelength
Svetlana N. Khonina, Vladimir Podlipnov, С. В. Карпеев, Andrey V. Ustinov, Sergey G. Volotovsky, Sofiya V. Ganchevskaya
Abstract
This paper examines the spectral properties of a spiral phase plate (SPP) generating orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams. A simple method is proposed for calculating the resulting OAM by measuring only two maximum expansion coefficients. A comparative numerical simulation of the proposed and traditional methods is performed. An SPP is fabricated for generation of an OAM with integer values at infrared and visible wavelengths. Qualitative experimental studies of the changes in a generated OAM with a change in the operating wavelength are performed using the spatial filtering method. The experimental results are found to agree with the results of numerical simulation. Beams with integer and fractional OAM values are obtained experimentally by changing the wavelength.