Fast electrical switching of orbital angular momentum modes using ultra-compact integrated vortex emitters

Strain, M. J. et al. (2014) Fast electrical switching of orbital angular momentum modes using ultra-compact integrated vortex emitters. Nature Communications, 5, p. 4856. (doi: 10.1038/ncomms5856) (PMID:25229882)

Abstract

The ability to rapidly switch between orbital angular momentum modes of light has important implications for future classical and quantum systems. In general, orbital angular momentum beams are generated using free-space bulk optical components where the fastest reconfiguration of such systems is around a millisecond using spatial light modulators. In this work, an extremely compact optical vortex emitter is demonstrated with the ability to actively tune between different orbital angular momentum modes. The emitter is tuned using a single electrically contacted thermo-optical control, maintaining device simplicity and micron scale footprint. On–off keying and orbital angular momentum mode switching are achieved at rates of 10 μs and 20 μs respectively.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sorel, Professor Marc and Phillips, Dr David and Strain, Dr Michael
• Authors: Strain, M. J., Cai, X., Wang, J., Zhu, J., Phillips, D. B., Chen, L., Lopez-Garcia, M., O’Brien, J. L., Thompson, M. G., Sorel, M., and Yu, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Nature Communications
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited
• First Published: First published in Nature Communications 5:4856
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy