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arXiv:1810.04091 · Optics Letters

Optical angular momentum manipulations in a four-wave mixing process

Nikunj Prajapati, Nathan Super, Nicholas R. Lanning, Jonathan P. Dowling, Irina V. Novikova

Published Jan 31, 2019• 29 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate the spatial and quantum intensity correlations between the probe and Stokes optical fields produced via four-wave mixing in a double-Λ configuration, when both incoming probe and control fields carry non-zero optical orbital angular momentum (OAM). We observed that the topological charge of the generated Stokes field obeyed the OAM conservation law. However, the maximum values and optimal conditions for the intensity squeezing between the probe and Stokes fields were largely independent of the angular momenta of the beams, even when these two fields had significantly different OAM charges. We also investigated the case of a composite-vortex pump field, containing two closely positioned optical vortices, and showed that the generated Stokes field carried the OAM corresponding to the total topological charge of the pump field, further expanding the range of possible OAM manipulation techniques.

DOI
10.1364/ol.44.000739

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We investigate the spatial and quantum intensity correlations between the probe and Stokes optical fields produced via four-wave mixing in a double-Λ configuration, when both incoming probe and control fields carry non-zero optical orbital angular momentum (OAM). We observed that the topological charge of the generated Stokes field obeyed the OAM conservation law. However, the maximum values and optimal conditions for the intensity squeezing between the probe and Stokes fields were largely independent of the angular momenta of the beams, even when these two fields had significantly different OAM charges. We also investigated the case of a composite-vortex pump field, containing two closely positioned optical vortices, and showed that the generated Stokes field carried the OAM corresponding to the total topological charge of the pump field, further expanding the range of possible OAM manipulation techniques.
We study the propagation of probe pulses carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) in a crystal of molecular magnets characterized by a double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ light-matter coupling scheme. The model is based on the four-wave mixing (FWM) of applied fields interacting with the magnetic dipole moment of the molecular magnets. We consider the light-matter interaction under the situation where a weak probe field carries an optical vortex and investigate the exchange of optical vortices between different frequencies via the FWM in the microwave region. The propagation of OAM beams with nonzero radial indices is then explored. It is found that the conservation of both azimuthal and radial indices is satisfied over the swapping of OAM states of light. Superimposing two initially weak OAM modes with different topological charges creates specific vortex beams with a very characteristic form. The resulting beam contains a central vortex as well as several singly charged peripheral vortices distributed at the same radial distance from the center of the light beam. This complex pattern of vortices arises because the intensity radius of two interfering OAM modes is different. It is shown that the boundary region of intensity dominance of two OAM modes can be controlled by the molecular magnets parameters and strong cw electromagnetic fields. Our proposed scheme may provide a route to study the solid systems suitable for quantum technologies as well as for OAM exchange devices for quantum information processing.
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We propose a scheme to exchange optical vortices of slow light using the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency in a four-level double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ atom-light coupling scheme illuminated by a pair of probe fields as well as two control fields of larger intensity. We study the light-matter interaction under the situation where one control field carries an optical vortex, and another control field has no vortex. We show that the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the vortex control beam can be transferred to a generated probe field through a four-wave-mixing process and without switching on and off of the control fields. Such a mechanism of OAM transfer is much simpler than in a double-tripod scheme in which the exchange of vortices is possible only when two control fields carry optical vortices of opposite helicity. The losses appearing during such OAM exchange are then calculated. It is found that the one-photon detuning plays an important role in minimizing the losses. An approximate analytical expression is obtained for the optimal one-photon detuning for which the losses are minimum while the intensity of generated probe field is maximum. The influence of phase mismatch on the exchange of optical vortices is also investigated. We show that in presence of phase mismatch the exchange of optical vortices can still be efficient.
Orbital angular momentum (OAM), characterized by a topological charge ℓ (ℓ integer), serves as a promising vehicle for carrying quantum information. Generating a nonclassical field involving two or more OAM modes can largely enhance the data-carrying capacity of quantum information processing. In this Letter, we present the implementation of a four-wave mixing (FWM) process, featuring a pump beam of a coherent OAM superposition mode and a probe beam of a single OAM mode. We generate twin beams encompassing multiple OAM modes and illustrate their quantum correlation when the pump beam assumes different coherent OAM superposition modes. Furthermore, we analyze the OAM mode components in each output field to deepen our understanding of the nonlinear interaction among different OAM modes. The obtained results show the rich structure of the nonlinear interaction of OAM modes in the FWM process and provide a perspective to study quantum information protocols.
We propose and analyze an efficient scheme for the coherent transfer of optical vortices in a cold atomic ensemble with four-level double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ configuration. The orbital angular-momentum (OAM) information can be transferred from the incident vortex fields to the generated backward signal field via resonant backward four-wave mixing (FWM). Considering the single vortex probe field initially acting on one transition of the atomic ensemble and using experimentally achievable parameters, we identify the conditions under which the resonant backward FWM allows us to greatly improve the conversion efficiency of optical vortices beyond what is achievable in the resonant forward OAM transfers. It is found that the complete energy conversion of optical vortices originates from the perfect competition between linear absorption and parametric gain. We also demonstrate that the phase mismatching would be detrimental to the high-efficiency transfer of optical vortices. Furthermore, we show that the generated backward signal field develops a new pure or mixing OAM state when the control field is also a vortex beam. Finally, we investigate the composite vortex beam generated by collinear superposition of the incident vortex probe and signal fields, which can controlled via adjusting the intensity of the control field. Our scheme may have potential applications in OAM-based optical communication and optical information processing.
In this paper, we report an experiment, which demonstrates computation of topological charges of two optical vortices via a nondegenerate four-wave-mixing process. We show that the output signal photon carries orbital angular momentum which equals to the subtraction of the orbital angular momenta of the probe light photon and the backward pump light photon. The 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms are used as the nonlinear medium, which transfers the orbital angular momenta of lights.