Schemes for the communication and registration of optical angular momentum
depend on the fidelity of transmission between optical system components. It
is known that electron spin can be faithfully relayed between exciton states in
quantum dots; it has also been shown by several theoretical and experimental studies
that the use of beams conveying orbital angular momentum can significantly
extend the density and efficiency of such information transfer. However, it remains
unclear to what extent the operation of such a concept at the single photon level is
practicable—especially where this involves optical propagation through a material system,
in which forward scattering events can intervene. The possibility of transmitting and
decoding angular momentum over nanoscale distances itself raises other important
issues associated with near-field interrogation. This paper provides a framework to
address these and related issues. A quantum electrodynamical representation is
constructed and used to pursue the consequences of individual photons, from
a Laguerre–Gaussian beam, undergoing single and multiple scattering events
in the course of propagation. In this context, issues concerning orbital angular
momentum conservation, and its possible compromise, are tackled by identifying the
relevant components of the electromagnetic scattering and coupling tensors, using an
irreducible Cartesian basis. The physical interpretation broadly supports the fidelity of
quantum information transmission, but it also identifies potential limitations of
principle.