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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Generation of gamma photons carrying transverse orbital angular momentum driven by a spatiotemporal optical vortex
Abstract:
Using particle-in-cell (PIC) numerical simulations, we investigate the generation of high-energy gamma photons carrying transverse orbital angular momentum (OAM) by the interaction of an intense circularly polarized spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) laser with a solid target. The energy and transverse OAM of the STOV laser can be transferred to electrons. Under quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects, energy and OAM of electrons are subsequently transferred to the radiated gamma photons. Two-dimensional PIC simulations reveal that, in the xoy plane, the energy density of the gamma photons is split into (|l | + 1) distinct nodal points. Three-dimensional numerical simulations further reveal that the longitudinal OAM carried by the gamma photons originates from the spin angular momentum (SAM) of the STOV laser pulse.
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