Optical vortex lattice: an exploitation of orbital angular momentum

Abstract

Generally, an optical vortex lattice (OVL) is generated via the superposition of two specific vortex beams. Thus far, OVL has been successfully employed to trap atoms via the dark cores. The topological charge (TC) on each optical vortex (OV) in the lattice is only ±1. Consequently, the orbital angular momentum (OAM) on the lattice is ignored. To expand the potential applications, it is necessary to rediscover and exploit OAM. Here we propose a novel high-order OVL (HO-OVL) that combines the phase multiplication and the arbitrary mode-controllable techniques. TC on each OV in the lattice is up to 51, which generates sufficient OAM to manipulate microparticles. Thereafter, the entire lattice can be modulated to desirable arbitrary modes. Finally, yeast cells are trapped and rotated by the proposed HO-OVL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first realization of the complex motion of microparticles via OVL. Thus, this work successfully exploits OAM on OVL, thereby revealing potential applications in particle manipulation and optical tweezers.

Broadband 2D n × n Vortex Arrays Generated from an Efficient Petal‐Like Raman Laser with an Astigmatic Mode Convertor

“…Vortex beams with a helical wave front, phase singularity, and orbital angular momentum (OAM) [ 1,2 ] find potential applications in optical trapping, [ 3 ] optical communications, and [ 4 ] quantum entanglement. [ 5 ] Optical vortex arrays or vortex lattices are well‐arranged multiple vortices with each vortex possessing a phase singularity [ 6,7 ] or an OAM and [ 8,9 ] are extremely needed for information security, [ 10 ] automultiscopic 3D display, [ 11 ] multiple microparticle manipulation, [ 12 ] and multiparticle trapping. [ 13 ] Self‐healing property of optical vortex array [ 14 ] enables information security and capacity of free space communication.…”

Generation of time-varying orbital angular momentum beams with space-time-coding digital metasurface

“…8 Moreover, OAM beams with nonzero topological charges have phase singularity with vanished intensity at the beam center, which are useful for optical trapping and lattices. [9][10][11][12] To further unlock the full potential of OAM, there have been persistent efforts in generalization of the concept. Spatiotemporal optical vortex beams [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] have been recently demonstrated with phase singularities generally in space-time coordinates, forming higher-order structures, such as a phase-singular ring.…”

“…Moreover, OAM beams with nonzero topological charges have phase singularity with vanished intensity at the beam center, which are useful for optical trapping and lattices 9 – 12 …”

Visualizing the Fractional Orbital Angular Momentum

“…[4] and optical micromanipulation. [5] The studies between optical vortex and OAM applications have made many breakthroughs in the last decade. [6,7] For most investigations on vortex beams, [8][9][10] the values of topological charge are confined to integer ranges, with helical phases of integer multiples of 2𝜋n.…”