• Special Issue
  • Optical Vortices and Vector Beams
  • 16 Article (s)
Orbital-angular-momentum-based reconfigurable optical switching and routing
Alan E. Willner, Long Li, Guodong Xie, Yongxiong Ren, Hao Huang, Yang Yue, Nisar Ahmed, Moshe J. Willner, Asher J. Willner, Yan Yan, Zhe Zhao, Zhe Wang, Cong Liu, Moshe Tur, and Solyman Ashrafi
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 050000B5 (2016)
Generation and propagation characteristics of electromagnetic vortices in radio frequency
Shilie Zheng, Weite Zhang, Zhuofan Zhang, Xiaofeng Jin, Hao Chi, and Xianmin Zhang
Electromagnetic vortices, which describe the orbital angular momentum (OAM) carrying waves with a helical phase front, have recently attracted much interest in a radio frequency domain due to their potential applications in many diverse areas. In an OAM-based scenario, the antenna for OAM mode multiplexing/demultiplexing plays an essential role in controlling the overall system performance. In this paper, we demonstrated theoretically and experimentally an easily realized OAM antenna based on the traveling-wave circular loop structure for efficiently multiplexing/demultiplexing multiple OAM modes; in addition, its general propagation characteristics including the polarization, divergence, and radiation pattern are mathematically analyzed. Schemes for antenna size reduction and various radiation pattern manipulations have also been discussed to realize a more flexible and compact system.
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 050000B9 (2016)
Advances in communications using optical vortices
Jian Wang
An optical vortex having an isolated point singularity is associated with the spatial structure of light waves. A polarization vortex (vector beam) with a polarization singularity has spatially variant polarizations. A phase vortex with phase singularity or screw dislocation has a spiral phase front. The optical vortex has recently gained increasing interest in optical trapping, optical tweezers, laser machining, microscopy, quantum informationprocessing, and optical communications. In this paper, we review recent advances in optical communications using optical vortices. First, basic concepts of polarization/phase vortex modulation and multiplexing in communications and key techniques of polarization/phase vortex generation and (de)multiplexing are introduced. Second, free-space and fiber optical communications using optical vortex modulation and optical vortex multiplexing are presented. Finally, key challenges and perspectives of optical communications using optical vortices are discussed. It is expected that optical vortices exploiting the space physical dimension of light waves might find more interesting applications in optical communications and interconnects.
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 05000B14 (2016)
Unveiling stability of multiple filamentation caused by axial symmetry breaking of polarization
Si-Min Li, Zhi-Cheng Ren, Ling-Jun Kong, Sheng-Xia Qian, Chenghou Tu, Yongnan Li, and Hui-Tian Wang
Femtosecond laser filamentation is generally initialized from unpredictable symmetry breaking caused by random noise, causing it to be barely controlled. However, it is always anticipated for stable and controllable filamentation. We present and demonstrate the idea that hybridly polarized vector fields with axial symmetry broken polarization, associated with a pair of orthogonally linearly polarized vortices carrying the opposite-handed orbital angular momenta, could achieve controllable and robust multiple filamentation. Here, our motivation is to unveil the underlying physics behind such controllable and robust multiple filamentation. The symmetry breaking should first be actively controllable and then be able to effectively inhibit random noise. Robust multiple filamentation is inseparable from the fact that the phases between the multiple filaments are always locked. In contrast, uncontrollable multiple filamentation is always accompanied with loss of phase, i.e., the multiple filaments become incoherent to each other. Our results may offer a suggestion for achieving controllable and robust multiple filamentation in other systems.and Equipment Development Project (2012YQ17004); Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics.
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 05000B29 (2016)
Creation of radially polarized optical fields with multiple controllable parameters using a vectorial optical field generator
Sichao Zhou, Shiyi Wang, Jian Chen, Guanghao Rui, and Qiwen Zhan
A vectorial optical field generator (VOF-Gen) based on two reflective phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulators enables the creation of an arbitrary optical complex field. In this work, the capabilities of the VOF-Gen in terms of manipulating the spatial distributions of phase, amplitude, and polarization are experimentally demonstrated by generating a radially polarized optical field consisted of five annular rings, the focusing properties of which are also numerically studied with vectorial diffraction theory. By carefully adjusting the relative amplitude and phase between the adjacent rings, an optical needle field with purely longitudinal polarization can be produced in the focal region of a high numerical aperture lens. The versatile method presented in this work can be easily extended to the generation of a vectorial optical field with any desired complex distributions.
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 05000B35 (2016)
Characteristic analysis of a Smith–Purcell terahertz source
Xian-Zhu Meng, Ming-Hong Wang, Li-Ming Zhang, and Zhong-Min Ren
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 05000162 (2016)
Experimental performance evaluation of quadrature amplitude modulation signal transmission in a silicon microring
Chengcheng Gui, and Jian Wang
We comprehensively characterize the transmission performance of m-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (m-QAM) signals through a silicon microring resonator in the experiment. Using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing based on offset QAM (OFDM/OQAM) which is modulated with m-QAM modulations, we demonstrate low-penalty data transmission of OFDM/OQAM 64-QAM, 128-QAM, 256-QAM, and 512-QAM signals in a silicon microring resonator. The observed optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) penalties are 1.7 dB for 64-QAM, 1.7 dB for 128-QAM, and 3.1 dB for 256-QAM at a bit-error rate (BER) of 2 × 10?3 and 3.3 dB for 512-QAM at a BER of 2 × 10?2. The performance degradation due to the wavelength detuning from the microring resonance is evaluated, showing a wavelength range of ~0.48 nm with BER below 2 × 10?3. Moreover, we demonstrate data transmission of 191.2-Gbit/s simultaneous eight wavelength channel OFDM/OQAM 256-QAM signals in a silicon microring resonator, achieving OSNR penalties less than 2 dB at a BER of 2 × 10?2.
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 05000168 (2016)
Improved optical enhancement using double-width plasmonic gratings with nanogaps
Ahmad A. Darweesh, Stephen J. Bauman, and Joseph B. Herzog
Photonics Research
  • Publication Date: Jan. 01, 2016
  • Vol. 4, Issue 5, 05000173 (2016)

This special issue focuses on optical vortices and solicits original papers on all aspects of optical vortices.