Optical Angular Momentum

Abstract

For many years the Institute of Physics has published books on hot topics based on a collection of reprints from different journals, including some remarks by the editors of each volume. The book on Optical Angular Momentum, edited by L Allen, S M Barnett and M J Padgett, is a recent addition to the series. It reproduces forty four papers originally published in different journals and in a few cases it provides direct access to works not easily accessible to a web navigator. The collection covers nearly a hundred years of progress in physics, starting from an historic 1909 paper by Poynting, and ending with a 2002 paper by Padgett, Barnett and coworkers on the measurement of the orbital angular momentum of a single photon. The field of optical angular momentum has expanded greatly, creating an interdisciplinary attraction for researchers operating in quantum optics, atomic physics, solid state physics, biophysics and quantum information theory. The development of laser optics, especially the control of single mode sources, has made possible the specific design of optical radiation modes with a high degree of control on the light angular momentum. The editors of this book are important figures in the field of angular momentum, having contributed to key progress in the area. L Allen published an historical paper in 1999, he and M J Padgett (together with M Babiker) produced few years ago a long review article which is today still the most complete basic introduction to the angular momentum of light, while S M Barnett has contributed several high quality papers to the progress of this area of physics. The editors' choice provides an excellent overview to all readers, with papers classified into eight different topics, covering the basic principles of the light and spin and orbital angular momentum, the laboratory tools for creating laser beams carrying orbital angular momentum, the optical forces and torques created by laser beams carrying angular momentum on particles and atoms, the rotational frequency shift, the angular momentum in nonlinear optics, and the entanglement of angular momentum. An introductory part contains the historic paper by Poynting mentioned above, and another one by Beth in 1936 where the angular momentum of light was measured through a mechanical detection. It also includes a paper by Allen written in 2002 as a long foreword to a Special Issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics where more recent major developments within this field were illustrated. Both experimental and theoretical aspects of orbital angular momentum are covered, the editors themselves having, in fact, contributed to developments in both aspects. A newcomer to the field will immediately realize the most important issues connected to the generation, propagation and application of laser beams with orbital angular momentum. A reader already acquainted with the main features of the topic may skip the first papers of all the sections listed above, and focus his or her attention to those papers devoted to the more recent developments. This is therefore a book to be considered with great attention by a large community. My only, minor, remark on the choice of the papers reproduced within this book is that applications to solid state physics, such as liquid crystals, are not mentioned. The field keeps expanding. For instance, very recently optical beams bearing optical angular momentum have been recognized as potential systems for doing quantum computation. Optical tweezers have defined a revolution in optical manipulation for research in the fields of biology, physical chemistry and soft condensed matter physics. The angular momentum of light also has applications in atom optics. Good textbooks are essential in establishing and expanding any field; they help broaden the interest in the field and ensure that the next generation of physicists can learn it. The present book satisfies those requirements because it provides to graduate students, to newcomers to the field, and also to experienced researchers an easy access to the basic contributions.