Fast electrical switching of orbital angular momentum modes using ultra-compact integrated vortex emitters
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Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Scanning SQUID Study of Vortex Manipulation by Local Contact
Published on: February 1, 2017
Michael J Strain1, Xinlun Cai2, Jianwei Wang3
11] Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Wolfson Centre, 106 Rottenrow East, Glasgow G4 0NW, UK [2] School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Rankine Building, Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LT, UK.
Abstract:
The ability to rapidly switch between orbital angular momentum modes of light has important implications for future classical and quantum systems. In general, orbital angular momentum beams are generated using free-space bulk optical components where the fastest reconfiguration of such systems is around a millisecond using spatial light modulators. In this work, an extremely compact optical vortex emitter is demonstrated with the ability to actively tune between different orbital angular momentum modes. The emitter is tuned using a single electrically contacted thermo-optical control, maintaining device simplicity and micron scale footprint. On-off keying and orbital angular momentum mode switching are achieved at rates of 10 μs and 20 μs respectively.
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