Orbital Angular Momentum Waves Research Articles

3D Printed Multi-Beam OAM Antenna Based On Quasi-Optical Beamforming Network

In this paper, a multi-beam orbital angular momentum (OAM) antenna is proposed. By employing 3D printed millimeter-wave quasi-optical beamforming network (BFN), the emitted OAM wave can realize passive beam scanning capability. The antenna is composed of a pillbox BFN, a slotted waveguide antenna (SWA) array, and several full-dielectric phase elements (PEs) on the top of the SWA array. The required phase distribution of the OAM beams is turned by the phase shifts of the PEs. The pillbox BFN can generate the input waves with different phase gradients for the SWA array, and thus steer the beam direction. Moreover, the folded structure of the pillbox BFN can greatly decrease the size of the antenna. The proposed topology can be easily expanded to realize more beam number, higher directivity, and other OAM modes for its periodical structure. To verify the performance of the proposed antenna, a prototype is fabricated and measured. Two types of 3D printing technology are used, i.e., selective laser melting (SLM) for the pillbox BFN and the SWA array, and fused deposition modeling (FDM) for the PEs. The application of the 3D printed method greatly helps to decrease the fabrication difficulty. The measured results show that the antenna can achieve five +1 mode beams with ±20° 3 dB beam coverage range. Moreover, due to the full-metal structure of the BFN and the SWA array, the proposed design can achieve the minimum efficiency of 83.2%, which is much better than the other printed circuit broad (PCB) based OAM antennas. The advantages of low-cost beam scanning capability and the extensibility make the proposed antenna topology a good choice for future OAM communication and sensor systems.

Orbital Angular Momentum Radio-Wave-Based 2-D Target Angle Estimation With Mutual Coupling

Vortex electromagnetic waves are conveniently produced by a uniform circular array (UCA). The mutual coupling matrix (MCM) of UCAs presents rotational symmetry, which can be employed to cut down the parameters in the circuit model. The impedance matrix also does not rely on a specific port. This work uses rotational symmetry to expand the MCM into the orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode domain. The OAM-domain phase sequence is derived by the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of the first row of the MCM. The connection between the number of OAM modes and the excitation of elements is described. Furthermore, an improved propagator method (PM) for OAM-based decoupled 2-D angle estimation is proposed. This method employs the original steering vector of OAM waves to process the receiving signal, which avoids errors caused by the Bessel function approximation. The estimation error is also reduced by redefining the propagator matrix. In terms of computational complexity, the proposed method avoids spectral search-and-element level eigenvalue decomposition (EVD). The results demonstrate that the coupling is compensated effectively by the OAM-mode domain MCM. The error of the proposed method is less than 1° under the condition of SNR = 20 dB and 1000 snapshots. The computational complexity is reduced by 1–2 orders of magnitude compared to the origin PM. The method is also suitable for 1-D estimation scenarios.

OAM mode purity improvement based on antenna array

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) waves are characterized by helical wave fronts and orthogonality between different modes. Therefore, OAM waves have huge potential in improving wireless communications' channel capacity and radar imaging's resolution. Consequently, the generation and application of OAM waves have attracted a lot of attention. And many methods are proposed to generate OAM waves. Although antenna array is the most popular method of generating OAM waves, OAM waves generated by antenna array have redundant modes. However, all advantages of OAM waves are closely related to infinite OAM modes. Thus, to better apply OAM waves to wireless communications and radar, it is very important to reduce unnecessary OAM modes and improve the OAM mode purity. In order to improve the OAM mode purity, two combined antenna arrays composed of X direction antenna and Y direction antenna array are proposed in this paper. The X direction antenna array and the Y direction antenna array are supplied by the excitations with the same amplitude and fixed phase shift. The overall phase shift of the X direction antenna array is π/2 more or less than that of the Y direction antenna array. The results of formulas and antenna models in CST show that the combined antenna arrays can generate OAM waves with less redundant modes in x component, y component and z component. Besides, the z component carries pure OAM modes.

A broadband orbital angular momentum generator utilizing polarization conversion metasurface at microwave frequencies

In this paper, we achieved first- and second-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) vortex beams by a single-layer polarization conversion metasurface (PCM). Firstly, we present the basic PCM unit, composed of a short line and two pairs of oval split rings along the diagonal direction attached to a substrate layer. The agreement of numerical simulations and experimental measurements proves that the employed structure’s polarization conversion ratio (PCR) is more than 90% from 8.12 to 22.81 GHz under normal incidence (corresponding to the fractional bandwidth of 94.9%). We reveal the physical mechanism of the proposed PCM by an equivalent circuit method in broadband. Furthermore, to construct the reflective PCM array, the reflection phase of 2π can be obtained by adjusting the geometric parameters of the units. The OAM vortex beams with different topological charges (l= −1, l= −2) can be achieved by specific compensation phases. Simultaneously, we calculate the purity of different OAM modes from 10 to 15 GHz, demonstrating that the main-mode dominates broadband. Finally, the proposed reflective array realizes a stable response to the variations in the incidence angle from 0° to 45°. The proposed method provides an opportunity to realize different topological charges of OAM waves by PCM units in broadband.

Improved Beam Steering Method Using OAM Waves

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) is an intrinsic feature of electromagnetic waves which has recently found many applications in several areas in radio and optics. In this paper, we use OAM wave characteristics to present a simple method for beam steering over both elevation and azimuth planes. The design overcomes some limitations of traditional steering methods, such as limited dynamic range of steering, the design complexity, bulky size of the steering structure, the limited bandwidth of operation, and low gain. Based on OAM wave characteristics, the proposed steering method avoids design complexities by adopting a simple method for generating the OAM-carrying waves. The waves are generated by an array of Planar Circular Dipole (PCD) elements. These elements are designed to cover a wide bandwidth range between 3 and 30 GHz. The transmitting array shows an enhanced gain value from 8.5 dBi to almost 11.5 dBi at the broadside angle. Besides the enhanced PCD-based OAM generation, the novelty of the design lies in a new method of beam steering. Beam steering is then performed by controlling the electrical feeding of the PCD elements; the beam azimuthal location is managed by turning off some of the PCD elements, while the elevation is determined by changing the gradient phase of excitation for the turned-on PCD elements. Detailed analysis of the steering method is carried out by finding the mathematical model of the system and the generated waves. The performance has been verified through numerical simulators.

Generation of OAM Waves and Analysis of Mode Purity for�G燬ub-6燝Hz燗pplications

This article presents the generation of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) vortex waves with mode 1 using Uniform Circular Array (UCA) antenna. Two different designs, namely, UCA-1 (4-element array antenna) and UCA-2 (8-element array antenna), were designed and fabricated using FR-4 substrate to generate OAM mode 1 at 3.5 GHz (5G mid-band). The proposed antenna arrays comprised rectangular microstrip patch elements with inset fed technique. The elements were excited by a carefully designed feeding phase shift network to provide similar output energy at output ports with desired phase shift value. The generated OAM waves were confirmed by measuring the null in the bore sight of their 2D radiation patterns, simulated phase distribution and intensity distribution. The measurement results agree well with the simulation results. Moreover, a detailed mode purity analysis of the generated OAM waves was carried out considering different factors. The investigation found that the greater the number of elements, the higher the purity of the generated OAM wave. Compared with other previous works, the proposed antenna design of this paper is very simple to design and fabricate. In addition, the proposed antennas are compact in design even at lower frequency band with very wide bandwidth to meet the requirements of 5G mid-band applications.

Cooperative Relay Networks Based on the OAM Technique for 5G Applications

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) is an intrinsic property of electromagnetic waves. Great research has been witnessed in the last decades aiming at exploiting the OAM wave property in different areas in radio and optics. One promising area of particular interest is to enhance the efficiency of the available communications spectrum. However, adopting OAM-based solutions is not priceless as these suffer from wave divergence especially when the OAM order is high. This shall limit the practical communications distance, especially in the radio regime. In this paper, we propose a cooperative OAM relaying system consisting of a source, relay, and destination. Relays help the source to transmit packets to the destination by providing an alternative connection between source and destination. This cooperative solution aims on the one hand, through best-path selection, on increasing the communications range. On the other hand, through the parallel transmission orders allowed by OAM carrying waves, the system could raise its total transmission throughput. Simulation results show that combining a cooperative relay with OAM improves the system throughput compared to using each element separately. In addition, the proposed cooperative relaying OAM outperforms the cooperative relaying non-orthogonal multiple access scheme, which is a key spectrally efficient technique used in 5G technology.

A Notch-Band UWB Antenna for OAM Wave Generation

This paper investigates a trapezoidal Monopole Patch Antenna (MPA) with an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) characteristic and a dual-stage notched band at fifth generation (5G) and Wireless Local-Area Network (WLAN) bands. The 5G band is notched by inserting a U-shaped slot on the trapezoidal UWB MPA. The WLAN band is notched using five-square metallic-conductor Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG) patches that are installed on the surface of the backside of the radiating patch and attached to the ground plane via a shorting pin. The small, proposed antenna is built upon an FR4 substrate substance, having dielectric comparative permittivity εr = 4.7, and fed by a 50 Ω coplanar waveguide. The antenna’s size is 32×42.90×0.8 mm3. The simulated results show that the antenna has an operating frequency range of 2.39–14.72 GHz for |S11|<-10 rejecting WLAN (5.15–5.825 GHz), as well as sub-6 GHz 5G (3.4–3.9 GHz) great-selectivity signals. A higher gain obtained by the UWB antenna is 6.4 dBi, while a sharp decrease occurs in the rejected bands, reaching -8.29 dBi. This study also employs the Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) technique. However, OAM waves are generated using eight trapezoidal UWB MPAs. Creating notches reduces the interference problem in UWB frequencies, and merging the UWB with the OAM technique allows the OAM to operate on many frequencies. Moreover, notches can be generated for specific frequencies inside the UWB bands. These techniques, trapezoidal UWB MPA and OAM wave generation, can significantly increase the spectrum range and improve the spectrum efficiency in wireless communications.

Orbital Angular Momentum Wave Generation and Multiplexing: Experiments and Analysis Using Classical and Quantum Optics

Optical fiber communication is known as the backbone of communication today for voice, video, and data transmission. Recent advancements in optical technologies are leading us to many new forms of generation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) waves and its transmission technologies. Among them are hypergeometric waveform (HG), Bessel’s waveforms, Laguerre Gaussian waveforms, and other forms of OAMs. This mode of communication is by the twisted form of electromagnetic wave which can accommodate a larger number of channels making communication simpler for wired and wireless communication. In this paper, various methods of OAM waveform generation are presented and are compared in details discussing the various needs in communication. OAM multiplexing is done by spatial division multiplexing (SDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Methods of OAM communication, generation techniques, power analysis, and bit error analysis prove efficient transmission capability of OAM waves using low power consumption and low bit error rate in optical communication networks. OAM from fiber can be directly communicated to atmosphere which is found very useful for short distance wireless communication. Experimental validation is discussed for HG, Bessel’s waveforms, and LG waveforms. Pure Optical Vertices (OV) are generated by VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) and transmitted by (MMF) multimode fibers. Various atmospheric effects and challenges are also elaborated in this paper. RSoft OptSim software is used for simulation.

Mode Purity Improvement of High‐Order Vortex Waves

Vortex electromagnetic waves can carry orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes of different order number, which are mutually orthogonal. Communication technologies multiplexing different OAM topological charges have attracted extensive attention in improving spectrum utilization. In this regard, the efficient generation of OAM modes becomes a key issue. However, it is difficult to generate high-order OAM modes by using a microstrip antenna with a simple structure, and the mode purity is usually not high. Methodologically, the OAM wave of a microstrip antenna is mostly achieved by synthesizing degenerate eigenmodes. In this paper, combined with eigenmode analysis, the construction of high-order and high-purity OAM mode microstrip antennas is carried out from the perspectives of radiating element, ground plane, and structural symmetry. For a regular hexagonal patch antenna of the 4th-order OAM mode, the mode purity is improved from about 40% to over 80% by removing the inner conductor of the patch layer, using a circular ground plane, and adding lug patches on the outside. This method of improving mode purity through the analysis of mode significance and characteristic current distribution also has guiding significance for the design of other high-order OAM mode patch antennas.

A reflective metasurface for broadband OAM vortex wave generation

In this paper, we proposed a reflective metasurface which controls the phase delay of the electromagnetic (EM) wave through geometric phase manipulation. By coding the metasurface unit cells in different orientation angles, an orbital angular momentum (OAM) wave can be obtained through the metasurface reflection. A broadband reflective OAM wave with mode l = −1 was demonstrated which was experimentally observed from 8.3 GHz to 11.6 GHz. The mode spectrum of OAM wave was analyzed and the spectrum weight was about 0.82 through numerical calculation and about 0.47 through experimental measurement for the mode l = −1. The realization of this broadband OAM wave has the potential application to improve the OAM wave based communication capacity.

Experimental Demonstration of OAM Spatial Field Digital Modulation Communication System

Spatial field digital modulation (SFDM) is a newly proposed technique, which directly modulates information in the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic (EM) field. In this letter, we propose an orbital angular momentum (OAM) based SFDM system. Furthermore, a demodulation method called the spatial matched filtering criterion is developed. The introduction of the spatial matched filter simplifies the architecture of the receiver and makes the practical system implement more viable. An experimental testbed is then built to measure the state isolation and the corresponding bit error rate (BER) performance of the OAM-SFDM system. We realize the SFDM signal transmission at a communication distance of 1.5 m with a practical analog-demodulation OAM-SFDM system. The results of the numerical simulations and the experimental measurements both verify the validity of this demodulation method. Moreover, it has been confirmed that the predictable phase information brought about by OAM waves plays a prominent role in the demodulation process.

How convolutional-neural-network detects optical vortex scattering fields

Light scattering through disordered media is a critical topic in optical engineering as its ubiquity in natural and artificial systems. Recent progress has shown that deep learning is capable to recognize topological charge values carried by orbital angular momentum (OAM) waves with ultra-fine resolution under scattering environment. However, the physical mechanism of how a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) fulfills such tasks remains unclear. In this paper, in perspective of optical vortex scattering field detection, we studied the basic physical mechanism of the CNN on recognizing scattered vortex beams carrying OAMs. It has been demonstrated that a CNN uses statistical invariance of both spatial phase front of an incident OAM wave and intrinsic features of a specific disordered medium across large-scale datasets to identify the OAM topological charge values from speckles. This work can provide insightful reference for CNN-assisted OAM-based scattering detection.

Analysis of electromagnetic scattering from typical targets for orbital‐angular‐momentum waves: Theoretical model

The target scattering characteristics in microwave band are necessary to be researched for Orbital-Angular-Momentum (OAM) wave-based radar applications. A theoretical description of electromagnetic (EM) scattering from a typical target by OAM waves is proposed in this paper. First, OAM waves are decomposed into plane waves in the spectral domain with different elevation and azimuth angles. Then, the scattering form of each decomposed plane wave is determined through coordinate system transformation and physical optics approximation. Formulas and numerical results are presented for OAM-based radar scattering cross section of a perfect electric conductor and dielectric plate and a cylinder. Unlike the conventional results of EM plane wave scattering, the scattering properties of OAM waves from plate and cylinder are analysed with particular emphasis on OAM mode influence. The results provide insights into OAM wave-matter interactions and may find important applications in wave propagation and OAM wave-based radar detection and imaging.

3D Sparse ISAR Imaging With Multiple Plane Spiral OAM Electromagnetic Waves

Vortex electromagnetic (EM) waves carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have a helical phase front and a field strength with a singularity along the axial center, which is expected to obtain resolutions beyond the Rayleigh limit for imaging systems, and provide new instruments for accurate radar targets imaging. However, since the vortex EM beams feature a doughnut-like intensity profile with a central dark zone and the inconsistent divergence angles of the main lobe, it is difficult to simultaneously illuminate the target for vortex EM beams with different OAM mode, which results in limited echo energy. In addition, the restricted elevation resolution hinders the acquisition of target spatial information, which limits the development of the OAM-based radar detection technique. This contribution offers a new set of ideas and solutions for achieving the 3D ISAR imaging using the superposition of different plane spiral OAM (PSOAM) waves. First, eigenmode beam steering techniques based on radio PSOAM waves is introduced. Subsequently, the PSOAM-based ISAR imaging model for maneuvering targets is derived and the echo characteristics are analyzed. Third, the effective imaging method, based on the amplitude phase compensation and fast Tensor-SL0 reconstruction algorithm, is proposed to solve the 3D sparse imaging problem in a tensor way. Finally, simulations are carried out to verify that the proposed method not only significantly reduces the computational complexity of the image reconstruction, but also generates the 3D image with sidelobes and artifacts removed remarkably from sparse measurements.

Photonic Integrated Circuit for Rapidly Tunable Orbital Angular Momentum Generation Using Sb2Se3 Ultra‐Low‐Loss Phase Change Material

AbstractThe generation of rapidly tunable optical vortex (OV) beams is one of the most demanding research areas of the present era as they possess orbital angular momentum (OAM) with additional degrees of freedom that can be exploited to enhance signal‐carrying capacity by using mode division multiplexing and information encoding in optical communication. Particularly, rapidly tunable OAM devices at a fixed wavelength in the telecom band stir extensive interest among researchers for both classical and quantum applications. This article demonstrates the realistic design of a Si‐integrated photonic device for rapidly tunable OAM wave generation at a 1550‐nm wavelength by using an ultra‐low‐loss phase change material (PCM) embedded with a Si‐ring resonator with angular gratings. Different OAM modes are achieved by tuning the effective refractive index using rapid electrical switching of Sb2Se3 film from amorphous to crystalline states and vice versa. The generation of OAM waves relies on a traveling wave modulation of the refractive index of the micro‐ring, which breaks the degeneracy of oppositely oriented whispering gallery modes. The proposed device is capable of producing rapidly tunable OV beams, carrying different OAM modes by using electrically controllable switching of ultra‐low‐loss PCM Sb2Se3.

Shielding of Orbital Angular Momentum Waves by a Cavity With Apertures

In this article, for the first time, the shielding of orbital angular momentum (OAM) waves by a cavity with apertures is evaluated. This is particularly interesting because the distinguishing feature between the OAM modes is their phase distribution in space, and, hence, shielding effectiveness is a mode-dependent phenomenon. A perfectly electrically conducting cavity with multiple apertures and two OAM antennas, inside and outside the cavity, is investigated using a method of moments based tool. The behavior of OAM waves is analyzed by comparing the transmission between the OAM arrays for different cases, including their field patterns in front of and behind the apertures. The effects of the orientation and position of the transmitting antenna, the rotation, size, and form of the apertures and different cavities are explored. Additionally, the effect on the distance and the orientation angle of the outer antenna are studied. It is shown that the propagation of OAM waves through apertures is possible and that the resulting signal loss is similar to the loss of a plane wave or the field of a monopole. It is also shown that certain OAM waves penetrate the apertures better than others.

Research on Orbital Angular Momentum Different Modes Networking Method in Wireless Communication

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has been a popular topic due to the natural orthogonality of OAM waves with different modes. It is expected to greatly improve the channel capacity of wireless communication systems. From the perspective of networking, this letter proposes an OAM-based different modes networking method (OAM DMN) that sets adjacent cells with OAM carriers of different modes, so as to improve the signal quality and spectrum efficiency of wireless network and better adapt to the high-density base station distribution scenario. This letter firstly analyzes the characteristics of atmospheric channel on OAM waves by regarding turbulent as random phase screen based on Kolmogorov turbulence theory. Combining with stochastic geometry, we get the outage probability function of wireless cells. Then two types of OAM DMN schemes are proposed to test the performance of the network under different channel conditions. Simulation shows that OAM DMN wireless network has lower outage probability compared with other OAM-based and conventional networks and better performance on high-density base station distribution.

Experimental study of acoustic superradiance from a rotating absorber

The concept that classic waves reflected from a rotating absorbing cylinder will be amplified is analogously linked to the Penrose superradiance that may extract energy from a rotating black hole. The superradiance of acoustic waves carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) from a sound absorber has been demonstrated in a recently published experiment using two rotating microphones. The experiment showed that the waves were amplified by up to 30% when the rotation rate of the absorber satisfied the Zel’dovich condition. Here, we proposed an experimental method to detect acoustic superradiance by static microphones. We demonstrated that the acoustic waves transmitted through a perforated absorber were amplified (by up to 1000%) even when the Zel’dovich condition was not satisfied. The experiment also showed that when the Doppler-shifted frequency of an observer was 0 Hz, the acoustic amplitude was very weak regardless of the rotation rate of the absorber. Our work was worthwhile not only in the proposed experimental method that was well-suited for observing the acoustic OAM wave but also in the high amplification achieved at a low rotation rate of the perforated absorber, showing a great prospect in practical applications such as amplifying the information-carrying OAM waves for high-speed acoustic communication.

Synthesis of near-diffraction-free orbital-angular-momentum space-time wave packets having a controllable group velocity using a frequency comb.

Novel forms of light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have recently gained interest, especially due to some of their intriguing propagation features. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the generation of near-diffraction-free two-dimensional (2D) space-time (ST) OAM wave packets (ℓ = +1, +2, or +3) with variable group velocities in free space by coherently combining multiple frequency comb lines, each carrying a unique Bessel mode. Introducing a controllable specific correlation between temporal frequencies and spatial frequencies of these Bessel modes, we experimentally generate and detect near-diffraction-free OAM wave packets with high mode purities (>86%). Moreover, the group velocity can be controlled from 0.9933c to 1.0069c (c is the speed of light in vacuum). These ST OAM wave packets might find applications in imaging, nonlinear optics, and optical communications. In addition, our approach might also provide some insights for generating other interesting ST beams.