Abstract

We show that the intensity distribution of an optical vortex contains information of its order. Specifically, the number of dark rings in the Fourier transform of the intensity is found to be equal to the order of the vortex. Based on this property and the orthogonality of Laguerre polynomials, we demonstrate the feasibility of an experimental technique for determining the order of optical vortices. It shows the beauty of going to complementary spaces, which has been employed earlier also to find the information not available in other domains.

© 2011 Optical Society of America

Information content of optical vortex fields

Ashok Kumar, Shashi Prabhakar, Pravin Vaity, and R. P. Singh
Opt. Lett. 36(7) 1161-1163 (2011)

Intensity correlation properties of high-order optical vortices passing through a rotating ground-glass plate

Ashok Kumar, J. Banerji, and R. P. Singh
Opt. Lett. 35(22) 3841-3843 (2010)

Generation of extreme ultraviolet vortex beams using computer generated holograms

Bernd Terhalle, Andreas Langner, Birgit Päivänranta, Vitaliy A. Guzenko, Christian David, and Yasin Ekinci
Opt. Lett. 36(21) 4143-4145 (2011)

Higher order optical vortices and formation of speckles

Salla Gangi Reddy, Shashi Prabhakar, Ashok Kumar, J. Banerji, and R. P. Singh
Opt. Lett. 39(15) 4364-4367 (2014)

Quadrant detector calibration for vortex beams

N. Hermosa, A. Aiello, and J. P. Woerdman
Opt. Lett. 36(3) 409-411 (2011)