Berry phase of higher-dimensional orbital angular momentum of light is studied. When an N th order orbital state, described by a vector in (N + 1)-dimensional space, evolves through a closed path in space of orbital states, there will exist a higher order orbital Berry phase. We calculate this phase by using the matrix transformation theory. A direct measurement of the higher-order orbital Berry phase is also carried out by the interference method. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical description, which shows that the Berry phase is proportional to the orbital angular momentum of light.
We describe a simple experiment that is ideally suited to analyze the high-dimensional entanglement contained in the orbital angular momenta (OAM) of entangled photon pairs. For this purpose we use a two-photon interferometer with a built-in image rotator and measure the two-photon visibility versus rotation angle. Mode selection with apertures allows one to tune the dimensionality of the entanglement; mode selection with spiral phase plates and fibers allows detection of a single OAM mode. The experiment is analyzed in two different ways: either via the continuous two-photon amplitude function or via a discrete modal (Schmidt) decomposition of this function. The latter approach proves to be very fruitful, as it provides a complete characterization of the OAM entanglement.