Higher order Bessel beams integrated in time (HOBBIT) with engineered light frequencies (ELFs)

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Beam Manipulation
• Optical Communications

Background:

• Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) offers unique properties for optical beam manipulation.
• Achieving high-speed, dynamic control over OAM states in non-diffracting beams remains a challenge.
• Existing methods often lack the speed and flexibility required for advanced applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel scheme for generating non-diffracting beams with rapidly switchable OAM.
• To demonstrate the capability of dynamic control over OAM states.
• To explore the generation of time-dependent non-diffracting amplitude structures.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a uniform circular frequency diverse array (UC-FDA) architecture.
• Employing an acousto-optic deflector (AOD) to introduce frequency diversity and create a circular array.
• Implementing local phase control for amplitude shaping.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated non-diffracting beams with dynamically controllable OAM.
• Achieved unprecedented OAM switching rates of 20 ns per integer.
• Generated arbitrary time-dependent non-diffracting amplitude structures.
• Maximal OAM range of m = ±64 demonstrated over 2.56 µs.

Conclusions:

• The proposed UC-FDA scheme enables high-speed OAM switching in non-diffracting beams.
• This technology offers a pathway for advanced optical communication and sensing systems.
• The ability to generate dynamic non-diffracting beams opens new possibilities in optical metrology.