Coherent transfer of orbital angular momentum from an atomic system to a light field

Journal Article · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2003 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.67.023803· OSTI ID:20633760

Akamatsu, Daisuke; Kozuma, Mikio ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550 (Japan)

We generated orbital angular momentum in atoms with a spin degree of freedom and coherently transferred it to a light field, which resulted in the generation of a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam. In this method, atoms obtain orbital angular momentum through Larmor precession around the quadrupole field. Successive operations of quadrupole and homogeneous magnetic fields lead to a change of sign in the LG beam or even generation of superposition states of the LG beam with different indexes in real time. Possible applications to control orbital angular momentum of arbitrary photons are also discussed.

• OSTI ID: 20633760
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 67; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
LARMOR PRECESSION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
OPTICS
ORBITAL ANGULAR MOMENTUM
PHOTON-ATOM COLLISIONS
PHOTONS
QUADRUPOLES
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SPIN
VISIBLE RADIATION