Optical vortex beams, with phase singularity characterized by a topological charge (TC), introduces a new dimension for optical communication, quantum information, and optical light manipulation. However, the evaluation of TCs after beam propagation remains a substantial challenge, impeding practical applications. Here, we introduce vortices in lateral arrays (VOILA), a novel spatial multiplexing approach that enables simultaneous transmission of a lateral array of multiple vortices. Leveraging advanced learning techniques, VOILA effectively decodes TCs, even in the presence of strong optical nonlinearities simulated experimentally. Notably, our approach achieves substantial improvements in single-shot bandwidth, surpassing single-vortex scheme by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, our system exhibits precise fractional TC recognition in both linear and nonlinear regimes, providing possibilities for high-bandwidth communication. The capabilities of VOILA promise transformative contributions to optical information processing and structured light research, with significant potential for advancements in diverse fields.
Structured light has revolutionized optical particle manipulation, nano-scaled material processing, and high-resolution imaging. In particular, propagation-invariant light fields such as Bessel, Airy, or Mathieu beams show high robustness and have a self-healing nature. To generalize such beneficial features, these light fields can be understood in terms of caustics. However, only simple caustics have found applications in material processing, optical trapping, or cell microscopy. Thus, these technologies would greatly benefit from methods to engineer arbitrary intensity shapes well beyond the standard families of caustics. We introduce a general approach to arbitrarily shape propagation-invariant beams by smart beam design based on caustics. We develop two complementary methods, and demonstrate various propagation-invariant beams experimentally, ranging from simple geometric shapes to complex image configurations such as words. Our approach generalizes caustic light from the currently known small subset to a complete set of tailored propagation-invariant caustics with intensities concentrated around any desired curve.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10172635
- Publisher / Repository:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-1723
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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