Superposition of helical beams by using a Michelson interferometer
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 16, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Chunqing Gao1, Xiaoqing Qi, Yidong Liu
1School of Opto-Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. gao@bit.edu.cn
Abstract:
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of a helical beam is of great interests in the high density optical communication due to its infinite number of eigen-states. In this paper, an experimental setup is realized to the information encoding and decoding on the OAM eigen-states. A hologram designed by the iterative method is used to generate the helical beams, and a Michelson interferometer with two Porro prisms is used for the superposition of two helical beams. The experimental results of the collinear superposition of helical beams and their OAM eigen-states detection are presented.
Related Concept Videos
Method of Superposition
When applying the method of superposition, each type of load—whether...
Interference and Diffraction
Beams with Symmetric Loadings
The M/EI...
Shear on the Horizontal Face of a Beam Element
Beams with Unsymmetric Loadings
The first moment-area theorem determines the slope at any point on the beam. This theorem indicates that the change in slope between two points on a beam...
Impact Loading on a Cantilever Beam
When an object is dropped onto the free end of a cantilever, its potential energy due to gravity is...

