Spin-orbit coupling in van der Waals materials for optical vortex generation

An optical vortex beam has attracted significant attention across diverse applications, including optical manipulation, phase-contrast microscopy, optical communication, and quantum photonics. To utilize vortex generators for integrated photonics, researchers have developed ultra-compact vortex generators using fork gratings, metasurfaces, and integrated microcombs. However, those devices depend on costly, time-consuming nanofabrication and are constrained by the low signal-to-noise ratio due to the fabrication error. As an alternative maneuver, spin-orbit coupling has emerged as a method to obtain the vortex beam by converting spin angular momentum (SAM) without nanostructures. Here, we demonstrate the creation of an optical vortex beam using van der Waals (vdW) materials. The significantly high birefringence of vdW materials allows the generation of optical vortex beams, even with materials of sub-wavelength thickness. In this work, we utilize an 8 µm-thick hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) crystal for the creation of optical vortices carrying topological charges of ±2. We also present the generation of an optical vortex beam in a 320 nm-thick MoS₂ crystal with a conversion efficiency of 0.09. This study paves the way for fabrication-less and ultra-compact optical vortex generators, which can be applied for integrated photonics and large-scale vortex generator arrays.