Photocurrent detection of the orbital angular momentum of light

Abstract

Light has several degrees of freedom (wavelength, polarization, pulse length, and so on) that can be used to encode information. A light beam or pulse can also be structured to have the property of orbital angular momentum, becoming a vortex. Because the winding number of the vortex can be arbitrary, the channel capacity can be expanded considerably. Zhang et al. and Ji et al. developed nanophotonic-based methods for generating and electrically detecting light with arbitrary orbital angular momentum, a goal that has remained an outstanding challenge so far (see the Perspective by Ge). The nanophotonic platform provides a route for developing high-capacity optical chips.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 15, 2020
Source ID
10.1126/science.aba9192

Entities

People

  • Albert V Davydov
  • Anlian Pan
  • Liang Feng
  • Ritesh Agarwal
  • Sergiy Krylyuk
  • Wenjing Liu
  • Xiaopeng Fan
  • Zhifeng Zhang
  • Zhurun Ji

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Hunan University
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
  • National Science Foundation
  • National Science Foundation Office of the Director
  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of Pennsylvania

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Space