Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published April 2016 | Published + Accepted Version + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry with twisted light

Abstract

The rich physics exhibited by random optical wave fields permitted Hanbury Brown and Twiss to unveil fundamental aspects of light. Furthermore, it has been recognized that optical vortices are ubiquitous in random light and that the phase distribution around these optical singularities imprints a spectrum of orbital angular momentum onto a light field. We demonstrate that random fluctuations of intensity give rise to the formation of correlations in the orbital angular momentum components and angular positions of pseudothermal light. The presence of these correlations is manifested through distinct interference structures in the orbital angular momentum–mode distribution of random light. These novel forms of interference correspond to the azimuthal analog of the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect. This family of effects can be of fundamental importance in applications where entanglement is not required and where correlations in angular position and orbital angular momentum suffice. We also suggest that the azimuthal Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect can be useful in the exploration of novel phenomena in other branches of physics and astrophysics.

Additional Information

© 2016, The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited. Submitted 22 August 2015. Accepted 4 March 2016. Published 8 April 2016. We thank B. Rodenburg, S. Lukishova, J. J. Shanchez-Mondragon, J. Wen, L. Gao, B. Gao, and Z. Yang for helpful discussions. Funding: This work was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, CONACyT, and the Mexican Secretaria de Educacion Publica. R.W.B. acknowledges support from the Canada Excellence Research Chairs program. Author contributions: O.S.M.-L. conceived the idea. O.S.M.-L. and M.M. designed the experiment. O.S.M.-L., R.M.C., M.M., and S.M.H.R. performed the experiment. R.M.C., S.M.H.R., O.S.M.-L., and M.M. performed the data analysis. The theoretical description was developed by S.M.H.R., O.S.M.-L., and M.M. The project was supervised by R.W.B. All authors contributed to the discussion of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from O.S.M.-L. and R.W.B.

Attached Files

Published - e1501143.full.pdf

Accepted Version - 1502.02086.pdf

Supplemental Material - 1501143_SM.pdf

Files

1502.02086.pdf
Files (4.1 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:83f0163b940486a0d616d7d9d0d0f56c
3.0 MB Preview Download
md5:72b3d58a88a15a17bf692b63a635b299
679.2 kB Preview Download
md5:60b5ec2c2bce4cb4818ce11fda602110
452.1 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023