APS Open Science
Speckle-learned regression for complete characterization of orbital angular momentum superposition states
Chayanika Sharma, Purnesh Singh Badavath, Vijay Kumar
Abstract
Superpositions of orbital angular momentum (OAM) eigenstates form a continuous state space characterized by the complex coefficients of the constituent modes. When such OAM superposition states propagate through a random medium, they produce speckle patterns. The random granular speckle patterns encode the complete information of the original superposition states. This work demonstrates that the complex coefficients of an arbitrary OAM superposition can be retrieved from a single-shot speckle image. The extraction is performed using custom-designed regression model and is validated through both experimental measurements and numerical simulations. The method remains effective for superpositions of high-dimensional OAM eigenstates, including intensity-degenerate states, demonstrating that speckle can serve as a robust information carrier for state characterization.