We have shown experimentally, in a real-world setting, that it is possible to use two beams of incoherent radio waves, transmitted on the same frequency but encoded in two different orbital angular momentum states, to simultaneously transmit two independent radio channels. This novel radio technique allows the implementation of, in principle, an infinite number of channels in a given, fixed bandwidth, even without using polarization, multiport or dense coding techniques. This paves the way for innovative techniques in radio science and entirely new paradigms in radio communication protocols that might offer a solution to the problem of radio-band congestion.

The experimental evidence that radio techniques can be used for synthesizing and analyzing non-integer electromagnetic (EM) orbital angular momentum (OAM) of radiation is presented. The technique used amounts to sample, in space and time, the EM field vectors and digitally processing the data to calculate the vortex structure, the spatial phase distribution, and the OAM spectrum of the radiation. The experimental verification that OAM-carrying beams can be readily generated and exploited by using radio techniques paves the way to an entirely new paradigm of radar and radio communication protocols. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3659466

Radio beams that carry non-zero Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) are analyzed from the viewpoint of a Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication system. Often, the natural OAM-beam orthogonality cannot be fully exploited because of spatial constraints on the receiving antenna size. Therefore, we investigate how far OAM-induced phase variations can be exploited in spatial de-multiplexing based on conventional (linear momentum) receivers. Performances are investigated vs. position and size of the transmitting and receiving devices. The use of OAM-mode coherent superpositions is also considered, in view of recent work by Edfors et al. [1]. Our final goal is to assess the merits of an OAM-based MIMO system, in comparison with a conventional one.

Our recent paper (Tamburini et al 2012 New J. Phys. 14 033001), which presented results from outdoor experiments that demonstrate that it is physically feasible to simultaneously transmit different states of the newly recognized electromagnetic (EM) quantity orbital angular momentum (OAM) at radio frequencies into the far zone and to identify these states there, has led to a comment (Tamagnone et al 2012 New J. Phys. 14 118001).These authors discuss whether our investigations can be regarded as a particular implementation of the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technique. Clearly, our experimental confirmation of a theoretical prediction, first made almost a century ago (Abraham 1914 Phys. Z. XV 914-8), that the total EM angular momentum (a pseudovector of dimension length × mass × velocity) can propagate over huge distances, is essentially different from-and conceptually incompatible with-the fact that there exist engineering techniques that can enhance the spectral capacity of EM linear momentum (an ordinary vector of dimension mass × velocity). Our OAM experiments (Tamburini et al 2012 New J. Phys. 14 033001; Tamburini et al 2011 Appl. Phys. Lett. 99 204102-3) confirm the availability of a new physical layer for real-world radio communications based on EM rotational degrees of freedom. The next step is to develop new protocols and techniques for high spectral density on this new physical layer. This includes MIMO-like and other, more efficient, techniques.

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