Design of on-chip N-fold orbital angular momentum multicasting using V-shaped antenna array

Area of Science:

• Electromagnetics and Optics
• Antenna Engineering
• Integrated Photonics

Background:

• Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) beams offer unique properties for advanced optical communications.
• On-chip generation and manipulation of multiple OAM beams are crucial for integrated photonic devices.
• Existing methods for OAM beam generation can be complex and lack on-chip integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and demonstrate an on-chip V-shaped antenna array for multicasting a single Gaussian beam into multiple OAM beams.
• To achieve efficient and low-crosstalk generation of four OAM beams simultaneously on a chip.
• To enable N-fold OAM multicasting using a novel antenna array design.

Main Methods:

• Design of a V-shaped antenna array for on-chip OAM beam generation.
• Utilizing a pattern search assisted iterative (PSI) algorithm to optimize continuous phase patterns.
• Discretization of phase patterns and integration with V-shaped antennas for multicasting.
• Experimental validation of the 4-fold OAM multicasting performance.

Main Results:

• Successful on-chip multicasting of a single Gaussian beam into four OAM beams.
• Achieved low crosstalk, less than -15 dB, between the generated OAM beams.
• Demonstrated favorable operational performance of the V-shaped antenna array for OAM multicasting.
• Verified the capability for N-fold OAM multicasting through the designed antenna array.

Conclusions:

• The V-shaped antenna array effectively enables on-chip N-fold OAM multicasting.
• The PSI algorithm facilitates the design of optimized phase patterns for OAM generation.
• The proposed method offers a promising solution for integrated photonic systems requiring multiple OAM beams.