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arXiv:2206.12883 · Advanced Photonics

Single-shot Kramers–Kronig complex orbital angular momentum spectrum retrieval

Zhongzheng Lin, Jianqi Hu, Yujie Chen, Camille‐Sophie Brès, Siyuan Yu

Published Jun 12, 2023• 37 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum diagnosis is a fundamental building block for diverse OAM-based systems. Among others, the simple on-axis interferometric measurement can retrieve the amplitude and phase information of complex OAM spectra in a few shots. Yet, its single-shot retrieval remains elusive, due to the signal–signal beat interference inherent in the measurement. Here, we introduce the concept of Kramers–Kronig (KK) receiver in coherent communications to the OAM domain, enabling rigorous, single-shot OAM spectrum measurement. We explain in detail the working principle and the requirement of the KK method and then apply the technique to precisely measure various characteristic OAM states. In addition, we discuss the effects of the carrier-to-signal power ratio and the number of sampling points essential for rigorous retrieval and evaluate the performance on a large set of random OAM spectra and high-dimensional spaces. Single-shot KK interferometry shows enormous potential for characterizing complex OAM states in real time.

DOI
10.1117/1.ap.5.3.036006

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Orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum diagnosis is a fundamental building block for diverse OAM-based systems. Among others, the simple on-axis interferometric measurement can retrieve the amplitude and phase information of complex OAM spectra in a few shots. Yet, its single-shot retrieval remains elusive, due to the signal–signal beat interference inherent in the measurement. Here, we introduce the concept of Kramers–Kronig (KK) receiver in coherent communications to the OAM domain, enabling rigorous, single-shot OAM spectrum measurement. We explain in detail the working principle and the requirement of the KK method and then apply the technique to precisely measure various characteristic OAM states. In addition, we discuss the effects of the carrier-to-signal power ratio and the number of sampling points essential for rigorous retrieval and evaluate the performance on a large set of random OAM spectra and high-dimensional spaces. Single-shot KK interferometry shows enormous potential for characterizing complex OAM states in real time.
The existing methods for measuring the orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) spectrum suffer from issues such as poor efficiency, strict interferometric stability requirements, and too much loss. Furthermore, most techniques inevitably discard part of the field and measure only a post-selected portion of the true spectrum. Here, we propose and demonstrate an interferometric technique for measuring the true OAM spectrum of optical fields in a single-shot manner. Our technique directly encodes the OAM-spectrum information in the azimuthal intensity profile of the output interferogram. In the absence of noise, the spectrum can be fully decoded using a single acquisition of the output interferogram, and, in the presence of noise, acquisition of two suitable interferograms is sufficient for the purpose. As an important application of our technique, we demonstrate measurements of the angular Schmidt spectrum of the entangled photons produced by parametric down-conversion and report a broad spectrum with the angular Schmidt number 82.1.
The existing methods for measuring the orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) spectrum suffer from issues such as poor efficiency, strict interferometric stability requirements, and too much loss. Furthermore, most techniques inevitably discard part of the field and measure only a post-selected portion of the true spectrum. Here, we propose and demonstrate an interferometric technique for measuring the true OAM spectrum of optical fields in a single-shot manner. Our technique directly encodes the OAM-spectrum information in the azimuthal intensity profile of the output interferogram. In the absence of noise, the spectrum can be fully decoded using a single acquisition of the output interferogram, and, in the presence of noise, acquisition of two suitable interferograms is sufficient for the purpose. As an important application of our technique, we demonstrate measurements of the angular Schmidt spectrum of the entangled photons produced by parametric down-conversion and report a broad spectrum with the angular Schmidt number 82.1.
Photons with a spiral phase will carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), which can serve as a valuable resource for constructing high-dimensional Hilbert spaces due to its orthogonality and unbounded dimensionality. However, the fast measurement of high-dimensional OAM spectra remains a challenge. While intensity detection is relatively straightforward, full characterization requires phase retrieval. Although quantum state tomography allows full reconstruction, it demands a number of measurements scaling quadratically with the d2 of dimension (d), leading to a “curse of dimensionality” as the dimension d increases. Thus, there is an urgent need for efficient and simple methods for extracting phase information from high-dimensional OAM spectra. Here, we propose a generalized Poincaré sphere model with analog Stokes-like parameters, enabling full phase measurement of a d-dimensional OAM spectrum using only 4d measurements, significantly reducing the data acquisition requirement. We experimentally validated the method by performing intensity and phase measurements on 8-, 16-, and 32-dimensional OAM comb spectra. The results show excellent agreement with theoretical predictions, with measured fidelities ranging from 0.9829 to 0.9965. This approach facilitates an efficient characterization of high-dimensional OAM spectra and contributes to advancing their practical applications.
Accurate reconstruction of the complex spectrum of orbital angular momentum (OAM) superposition states is crucial for their application in high-capacity optical communications and quantum information, yet existing methods are often constrained by system complexity, extensive data requirements, or incomplete information retrieval. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an iterative algorithm that enables high-fidelity recovery of the complex OAM spectrum of high-dimensional superpositions from only a few sparsely sampled patterns. The method integrates the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modal basis as an a priori constraint, which enables the direct retrieval of spectral coefficients by circumventing intermediate field reconstruction. To validate its performance, we reconstructed a test field composed of a random superposition of 21 LG modes, achieving fidelities of 99.3% in simulation and 97.2% in experiment using only four sparse sampling patterns. This work provides an efficient and robust tool for characterizing high-dimensional structured light, with significant potential in optical communication and quantum science.
The orbital angular momentum of light (OAM) is a fundamental property of light. Beams with OAM have a helical wave front that carries quantized orbital angular momentum L hbar per photon, where L is any integer. This unbounded Hilbert space can increase information capacity of both classical and quantum communications and also improve and extend qubit and qudit quantum algorithms. Additionally, the use of the OAM modes allows for novel imaging techniques to directly observe and measure various topological properties of objects ranging from defects in semiconductors to rotating black holes and extrasolar planets. However, measuring such higher dimensional OAM states is fundamentally important, albeit challenging, in order to use this rich degree of freedom. In the work that follows, I present two novel OAM to time mapping schemes and an application using the higher dimensionality of OAM to non-destructively probe quantum states. These are the first OAM measuring schemes to use the temporal degree of freedom to measure OAM. The use of the novel loop nature allows for high fidelity and high speed measurements of a large number of OAM states without significant increase in experimental resources. The first scheme experimentally demonstrates a compact and practical device to measure the OAM spectrum. I report a fidelity of -21.3 dB for 5 different OAM states. The second scheme extends the first, but uses non-demolition measurements to iteratively test for specific OAM values. While this increases experimental complexity, it allows for the detection of an arbitrarily large OAM value from a single photon. I also discuss details of each technique investigate the affects of misalignment on the OAM spectrum. In the remaining part, I discuss my novel generalized quantum Zeno interrogation. The original quantum Zeno interrogation is limited to the two-dimensional state of a single object; while the generalized version has the ability to non-destructively probe the quantum state a set of objects, and deterministically imprint that information onto a single photon using the OAM degree of freedom.