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Updated: May 16, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Near-perfect sorting of orbital angular momentum and angular position states of light
Malcolm N O'Sullivan1, Mohammad Mirhosseini, Mehul Malik
1The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. 320 Wilmot BLDG, 275 Hutchison Rd, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
Abstract:
We present a novel method for efficient sorting of photons prepared in states of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and angular position (ANG). A log-polar optical transform is used in combination with a holographic beam-splitting method to achieve better mode discrimination and reduced cross-talk than reported previously. Simulating this method for 7 modes, we have calculated an improved mutual information of 2.43 bits/photon and 2.29 bits/photon for OAM and ANG modes respectively. In addition, we present preliminary results from an experimental implementation of this technique. This method is expected to have important applications for high-dimensional quantum key distribution systems.
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