Orbital angular momentum modes of high-gain parametric down-conversion. (16th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Beltran, Lina; Frascella, Gaetano; Perez, Angela M; Fickler, Robert; Sharapova, Polina R; Manceau, Mathieu; Tikhonova, Olga V; Boyd, Robert W; Leuchs, Gerd; Chekhova, Maria V
• Is Part Of: Journal of optics. Volume 19:Number 4(2017:Apr.)
• Publication Date: 2017-03-16
• Subjects: parametric down-conversion -- orbital angular momentum -- bright squeezed vacuum -- Schmidt modes -- coherent modes; Quantum optics -- coherent optical effects -- nonlinear optics -- parametric processes -- coherence; Optics -- Periodicals; 535.05
• DOI: 10.1088/2040-8986/aa600f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-8978

Abstract

Abstract: Light beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM) are convenient carriers of quantum information. They can also be used for imparting rotational motion to particles and providing high resolution in imaging. Due to the conservation of OAM in parametric down-conversion (PDC), signal and idler photons generated at low gain have perfectly anti-correlated OAM values. It is interesting to study the OAM properties of high-gain PDC, where the same OAM modes can be populated with large, but correlated, numbers of photons. Here we investigate the OAM spectrum of high-gain PDC and show that the OAM mode content can be controlled by varying the pump power and the configuration of the source. In our experiment, we use a source consisting of two nonlinear crystals separated by an air gap. We discuss the OAM properties of PDC radiation emitted by this source and suggest possible modifications.