物理学报Issue(16)：1-13,13.DOI:10.7498/aps.64.164210
光子高阶轨道角动量制备、调控及传感应用研究进展∗
Research progress on preparation, manipulation, and remote sensing applications of high-order orbital angular momentum of photons
摘要
Abstract
Photons are an ideal candidate for encoding both classical and quantum information. Besides spin angular mo-mentum associated with circular polarization, single photon can also carry other fundamentally new degree of freedom of orbital angular momentum related to the spiral phase structure of light. The key significance of orbital angular momentum lies in its potential in realizing a high-dimensional Hilbert space and in encoding a high-dimensional quan-tum information. Since Allen et al. [Allen L, Beijersbergen M W, Spreeuw R J C, Woerdman J P 1992 Phys. Rev. A 45 8185] recognized the physical reality of photon orbital angular momentum in 1992, rapidly growing interest has been aroused in orbital angular momentum (OAM) from both classical and quantum points of view. Here we present an overall review on the high-order orbital angular momentum of photon, including its preparation and manipulation based on some specific techniques and also its applications. The spatial light modulator is a commercial device that has been widely employed to generate the OAM beams. We make and identify the optical OAM superposition with very high quantum numbers up to ℓ=360. Recently, the metallic spiral phase mirrors were also developed to produce high-order OAM beams up toℓ=5050. In addition, the Q-plates made of anisotropic and inhomogeneous liquid crystals were invented to generate high-order OAM beams in a polarization-controllable manner, and the OAM superposition ofℓ=±50 were achieved. Owing to high rotational symmetry, these high OAM beams have been found to have more and more important applications in the fields of high-sensitivity sensing and high-precision measurements. Two fascinating examples are discussed in detail. The first example is that the research group led by Prof. Zeilinger has prepared and observed the quantum entanglement of high orbital angular momenta up to ℓ=±300 by the technique of polarization-OAM entanglement swapping, and they demonstrated that the angular resolution could be significantly improved by a factor of ℓ. Their result was the first step for entangling and twisting even macroscopic, spatially separated objects in two different directions. The second example is that the research group led by Prof. Padgett has demonstrated an elegant experiment of rotational Doppler effects for visible light withℓ=±20 OAM superposition. They showed that a spinning object with an optically rough surface might induce a Doppler effect in light reflected from the direction parallel to the rotation axis, and the frequency shift was proportional to both the disk’s angular speed and the optical OAM. The potential applications in noncontact measurement of angular speed and in significant improvement of angular resolution for remote sensing will be particularly fascinating.关键词
光子轨道角动量/量子纠缠/旋转Doppler效应/量子遥感技术Key words
orbital angular momentum of light/quantum entanglement/rotation Doppler effect/quan-tum remote sensing引用本文复制引用
陈理想,张远颖..光子高阶轨道角动量制备、调控及传感应用研究进展∗[J].物理学报,2015,(16):1-13,13.基金项目
国家自然科学基金(批准号:11104233,11474238)、教育部新世纪优秀人才支持计划(批准号：NCET-13-0495)、福建省杰出青年基金(批准号:2015J06002)、福建省高等学校新世纪优秀人才支持计划和厦门大学校长基金(批准号:2012121015)资助的课题.@@@@* Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.11104233,11474238), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. NCET-13-0495), the Science Foundation of Fujian Province for Distinguished Young Scientists, China (Grant No.2015J06002), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities of Fujian Province, China, and the Principal Fund of Xiamen University, China (Grant No.2012121015) （批准号:11104233,11474238）
