Remotely sensing an object’s rotational orientation using the orbital angular momentum of light (Invited Paper)

Abstract

Remotely sensing an object with light is essential for burgeoning technologies, such as autonomous vehicles. Here, an object’s rotational orientation is remotely sensed using light’s orbital angular momentum. An object is illuminated by and partially obstructs a Gaussian light beam. Using an SLM, the phase differences between the partially obstructed Gaussian light beam’s constituent OAM modes are measured analogous to Stokes polarimetry. It is shown that the phase differences are directly proportional to the object’s rotational orientation. Comparison to the use of a pixelated camera and implementation in the millimeter wave regime are discussed.