Work

Tunable liquid crystal q-plates with arbitrary topological charge

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: Using a photoalignment technique with a sulphonic azo-dye as the surfactant aligning material, we fabricated electrically tunable liquid crystal q-plates with topological charge 0.5, 1.5 and 3 for generating optical vortex beams with definite orbital angular momentum (OAM) 1,3 and 6 per photon (in units of ¯h), respectively. We carried out several tests on our q-plates, including OAM tomography, finding excellent performances. These devices can have useful applications in general and quantum optics.

Source: Optics Express

DOI: 10.1364/oe.19.004085

Authors: Sergei Slussarenko, Anatoli Murauski, Tao Du, Vladimir Chigrinov, Lorenzo Marrucci, Enrico Santamato

Institutions: University of Naples Federico II, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,270

Funders: European Commission, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology