The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields
When structured light is propagated through the atmosphere, turbulence results in modal scattering and distortions. An extensively studied example is that of light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), where the atmosphere is treated as a phase distortion and numerical tools extract the resulting...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | New Journal of Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac1fca |
| _version_ | 1797750085050695680 |
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| author | Asher Klug Isaac Nape Andrew Forbes |
| author_facet | Asher Klug Isaac Nape Andrew Forbes |
| author_sort | Asher Klug |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When structured light is propagated through the atmosphere, turbulence results in modal scattering and distortions. An extensively studied example is that of light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), where the atmosphere is treated as a phase distortion and numerical tools extract the resulting modal cross-talk. This approach focuses on the light itself, perturbed by the atmosphere, yet does not easily lend itself to physical insights, and fails to ask a pertinent question: where did the OAM that the beam gained or lost come from? Here, we address this by forgoing the beam and instead calculating the OAM of the atmosphere itself. With this intuitive model we are able to draw general conclusions on the impact of atmospheric turbulence on OAM beams, which we confirm experimentally. Our work alters the perspective on this problem, opening new insights into the physics of OAM in turbulence, and is easily extended to other structured light fields through arbitrary aberrations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:27:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-857503f003ea4521a723f8506f366434 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1367-2630 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:27:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | New Journal of Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-857503f003ea4521a723f8506f3664342023-08-08T15:38:49ZengIOP PublishingNew Journal of Physics1367-26302021-01-0123909301210.1088/1367-2630/ac1fcaThe orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fieldsAsher Klug0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7298-2021Isaac Nape1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9517-6612Andrew Forbes2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2552-5586School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand , Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South AfricaSchool of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand , Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South AfricaSchool of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand , Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South AfricaWhen structured light is propagated through the atmosphere, turbulence results in modal scattering and distortions. An extensively studied example is that of light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), where the atmosphere is treated as a phase distortion and numerical tools extract the resulting modal cross-talk. This approach focuses on the light itself, perturbed by the atmosphere, yet does not easily lend itself to physical insights, and fails to ask a pertinent question: where did the OAM that the beam gained or lost come from? Here, we address this by forgoing the beam and instead calculating the OAM of the atmosphere itself. With this intuitive model we are able to draw general conclusions on the impact of atmospheric turbulence on OAM beams, which we confirm experimentally. Our work alters the perspective on this problem, opening new insights into the physics of OAM in turbulence, and is easily extended to other structured light fields through arbitrary aberrations.https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac1fcaorbital angular momentumstructured lightatmospheric turbulenceZernike polynomials |
| spellingShingle | Asher Klug Isaac Nape Andrew Forbes The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields New Journal of Physics orbital angular momentum structured light atmospheric turbulence Zernike polynomials |
| title | The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields |
| title_full | The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields |
| title_fullStr | The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields |
| title_full_unstemmed | The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields |
| title_short | The orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields |
| title_sort | orbital angular momentum of a turbulent atmosphere and its impact on propagating structured light fields |
| topic | orbital angular momentum structured light atmospheric turbulence Zernike polynomials |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac1fca |
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