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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Measurement of the orbital angular momentum spectrum of partially coherent beams
H Di Lorenzo Pires1, J Woudenberg, M P van Exter
1Huygens Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. pires@molphys.leidenuniv.nl
Abstract:
In this work we implement a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an image rotator in one of its arms to measure the orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum of a partially coherent beam. By measuring the visibility of the interference as a function of the angle of rotation, the OAM distribution can be recovered via a Fourier transform. Theoretical calculations based on the coherent mode decomposition of the cross-spectral density are in excellent agreement with the experimental data.
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