Abstract
We introduce a simple method to characterize the topological charge associated with the orbital angular momentum of a m-order elliptic light beam. This method consists in the observation of the far field pattern of the beam carrying orbital angular momentum, diffracted from a triangular aperture. We show numerically and experimentally, for Mathieu, Ince–Gaussian, and vortex Hermite–Gaussian beams, that only isosceles triangular apertures allow us to determine in a precise and direct way, the magnitude m of the order and the number and sign of unitary topological charges of isolated vortices inside the core of these beams.
Highlights
We contribute to this type of study, by showing that the order m of an EVB can be determined by inspection of the diffraction pattern from an isosceles triangular aperture
The theoretical approach for this diffraction problem consists in calculating the far field pattern by a triangular aperture
We have shown numerically that the diffraction pattern through an isosceles triangular aperture determines the total topological charge m, and the helicity of Mathieu, HIG and VHG beams in a clear and unambiguous way
Summary
We contribute to this type of study, by showing that the order m of an EVB can be determined by inspection of the diffraction pattern from an isosceles triangular aperture. Due to the elliptical symmetry of the EVBs, the appropriated aperture must have an isosceles triangular shape and it should be placed in the beam as described in more detail below.
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