Demonstration of reconfigurable joint orbital angular momentum mode and space switching.

Jun Liu,Jian Wang

doi:10.1038/srep37331

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate space-selective switch functions employing orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes in the space domain for switching network. One is the switching among different OAM modes having different spatial phase structures, called OAM mode switching. The other is the switching among different space locations, called space switching. The switching operation mechanism relies on linear optics. Reconfigurable 4 × 4 OAM mode switching, space switching, and joint OAM mode and space switching fabric using a single spatial light modulator (SLM) are all demonstrated in the experiment. In addition, the presented OAM-incorporated space-selective switch might be further extended to N × N joint OAM mode and space switching with fast response, scalability, cascading ability and compability to facilitate robust switching applications.

Highlights

Space switch fabric using a single spatial light modulator (SLM). 4 × 4 orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode switching, space switching and joint OAM mode and space switching are all demonstrated in the experiment
Case 2: one OAM mode (e.g. OAM+1) at input port 2 is switched to another OAM mode (e.g. OAM+3) at the same output port 2, i.e. with OAM mode switching and without space switching
Case 4: one OAM mode (e.g. OAM+4) at input port 4 is switched to another OAM mode (e.g. OAM+5) at the different output port 3, i.e. with OAM mode switching and with space switching

Summary

Introduction

Space switch fabric using a single spatial light modulator (SLM). 4 × 4 OAM mode switching, space switching and joint OAM mode and space switching are all demonstrated in the experiment. One can clearly see that the topological charge value of OAM mode at input port 1, port 2, port 3 and port 4 is 1, 2, 3 and 4, corresponding to SLM1 to SLM4 branches, respectively.

Results

Conclusion