Remark on Integral Orbital Angular Momentum

Dipankar Home, S. Sengupta

H. A. Buchdahl

That the eigenvalues of the components of orbital angular momentum are integral is most often inferred from the requirement that the Schrödinger representatives of the angular momentum eigenkets shall be single-valued functions of the spatial coordinates. Physical interpretation, however, requires only that the squared modulus of any wavefunction shall be single-valued, which leads only to the weaker conclusion that the eigenvalues are either all integral or all half-odd integral. It is shown here in an elementary manner that the eigenvalues are in fact integral, any explicit appeal to single-valuedness being avoided.

Ioannes Rigas, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto, A. B. Klimov +2 more

Cody C. Leary, M. G. Raymer, S. J. van Enk

We show that when an electron or photon propagates in a cylindrically symmetric waveguide, its spin angular momentum (SAM) and its orbital angular momentum (OAM) interact. Remarkably, we find that the dynamics resulting from this spin-orbit interaction are quantitatively described by a single expression applying to both electrons and photons. This leads to the prediction of several rotational effects: the spatial or time evolution of either particle's spin-polarization vector is controlled by its OAM quantum number or, conversely, its spatial wave function is controlled by its SAM. We show that the common origin of these effects in electrons and photons is a universal geometric phase. We demonstrate how these phenomena can be used to reversibly transfer entanglement between the SAM and OAM degrees of freedom of two-particle states.

Guanghao Rui, Qiwen Zhan

A multi-channel orbital angular momentum (OAM) detection scheme is proposed. Numerical simulations demonstrate that 13 OAM states can be distinguished with high fidelity by using a 4-sector metahologram with 4 integrated spatially distributed subwavelength detectors.

D. Baye, M. Dufour, Benjamin Fuks E