Versatile total angular momentum generation using cascaded J-plates

Yao-Wei Huang, Noah A. Rubin, Antonio Ambrosio, Zhujun Shi, Robert C. Devlin, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Federico Capasso

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

Optical elements coupling the spin and orbital angular momentum (SAM/OAM) of light have found a range of applications in classical and quantum optics. The J-plate, with J referring to the photon’s total angular momentum (TAM), is a metasurface device that imparts two arbitrary OAM states on an arbitrary orthogonal basis of spin states. We demonstrate that when these J-plates are cascaded in series, they can generate several single quantum number beams and versatile superpositions thereof. Moreover, in contrast to previous spin-orbit-converters, the output polarization states of cascaded J-plates are not constrained to be the conjugate of the input states. Cascaded J-plates are also demonstrated to produce vector vortex beams and complex structured light, providing new ways to control TAM states of light.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7469
JournalOptics Express
Volume27
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 27 2019
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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