Optical beams with an infinite number of vortices

Abstract

In optical data transmission with using vortex laser beams, data can be encoded by the topo-logical charge, which is theoretically unlimited. However, the topological charge of a single sepa-rate vortex is limited by possibilities of its generating. Therefore, in this work, we analyze light beams with an unbounded (countable) set of optical vortices. The summary topological charge of such beams is infinite. Phase singularities (isolated intensity nulls) in such beams typically have a unit topological charge and reside equidistantly (or not equidistantly) on a straight line in the beam cross section. Such beams are form-invariant and, on propagation in space, change only in scale and rotate. Orbital angular momentum of such multivortex beams is finite, since only a finite number of optical vortices fall into the area, where the Gaussian beam has a notable intensity. Other phase singularities are located in the periphery (and at the infinity), where the intensity is almost zero.