Abstract

This paper presents robust strategies to enhance the rotation sensitivity (and resolution) of a coherent superposition of optical vortices emerging from a single spiral phase plate (SPP) device when light’s optical frequency (or wavelength) going into the SPP device is varied. The paper discusses the generation and measurement of ultrasmall rotation. Factors that affect the ability to perform precision rotation measurements include the linewidth and stability of the input light source, the number of photon counts making position rotation measurements on the CCD detector, SPP reflectivity, the length of SPP device, and the angular modulation frequency of the intensity pattern due to a coherent superposition of optical vortices in a single SPP device. This paper also discusses parameters to obtain a high-sensitivity single shot measurement and multiple measurements. Furthermore, it presents what I believe is a new scaling showing the enhancement in sensitivity (and resolution) in the standard quantum limit and Heisenberg limit. With experimentally realizable parameters, there is an enhancement of rotation sensitivity by at least one order of magnitude compared to previous rotation measurements with optical vortices. Understanding robust strategies to enhance the rotation sensitivity in an SPP device is important to metrology in general and for building compact SPP sensors such as gyroscopes, molecular sensors, and thermal sensors.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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