Limitation of available phase mode and excitation

phase mode in OAM Circular array

Li Li, Siying Guo, Xiaoli Yin
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Beijing 100876, China

Abstract-The common limitation rule of the available orbital A. Decomposition of OAM mode
angular momentum (OAM) mode of a circular array is proved and
validated. And the relationship between the excitation mode and
the available mode of the field radiated by a circular array is
analyzed. In addition, the purity of different mode is defined and
the influence of the array parameters to the purity of each mode is
discussed.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the orbital angular momentum (OAM)
technology has become a research hotspot as a multiplexing
technology in wireless communication. In 1992, OAM was
proposed and proved firstly by Allen et al. [1]. But the time
OAM started to be used in wireless optical communication is Figure 1. Uniform circular array antenna with N elements
2012[2]. And in 2014, Allen realized the method of using orbital
angular momentum multiplexing in the communication of Fig. 1 shows a uniform circular array antenna with N elements.
millimeter wave segments [3]. In 2014, a circular phased array In this circular array, the position of the mth element is ( , 90, φ ),
ilφm
antenna composed of eight patch elements is proposed [4]. It can the excitation current is I 0 e , where l is an integer, represents
produce different patterns of OAM by controlling the step phase the mode number of OAM. With far-field approximation,
of the input current of each patch. And in 2014 the circular array
the magnetic vector potential of the mth element is
model is made to be realistic by Alan Tennant, and satisfactory
performance is achieved [5]. In 2016, concentric circular array Am (r) ≈ A0 (r)exp(ilφm )exp[−ikRsinθ cos(ϕ −φm )] ⑴
structure is proposed to improve the capacity of bandwidth ce ikr

because each circle can carry independent OAM beam with A0 (r) = yˆ
Where r , the
magnetic vector potential of an N
different mode [6]. In circular array, a common limitation rule
element circular array is =∑ , and it can be
of available modes is that l ＜ N .
2 expanded into Fourier series：
+∞ +∞
In this paper, the array factor of a circular array antenna is Aarray =-  {(-i) l + nN N exp [i (l + nN )ϕ ] J l + nN (kR sin θ )} ⋅ A 0 = P l + nN ( r ,θ , ϕ ) ⑵
expanded into Fourier Series and through this form, the n=-∞ n=-∞

limitation of available modes is proved. This paper is organized
as follows: According to the Fourier Series, the principle of
choosing appropriate modes is proposed and proved. Then the
relationship between the excitation modes and the available
modes of the radiated field is discussed, it shows that there are
numerous kinds of feeding methods to produce a desired mode.
In addition, the purity of different mode is defined and the
influence of the array parameters to the purity of each mode is
discussed.
II. MODE PURITY THEORY
Where Jl+nN is the (l+nN)th-order Bessel function of the first
kind, Pl+nN is the (l+nN)th-order phase mode. It is seen that Array
is divided into infinite phase modes. Each phase mode consists
of a phase term [ ( + ) ] and an amplitude term
( ) [7].
When the array is fed by phase mode l, the actual
performance of the radiated field is a superposition of infinite
different modes l ' = l + nN ( n ∈ Z ) .

National Natural Science Foundation of China (61575027)

Authorized licensed use limited to: ULAKBIM UASL - GAZI UNIV. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 14:57:11 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
B. Limitation of available mode = ∑∞
| ( , , )|
⑶
∞| ( , , )|

A. Purity of OAM mode of the OAM Circular Array

Fig.3 shows the purity of mode 1 of the circular array with
N=8, l=1 and different radius. It can be seen that the purity of
mode 1 is inversely proportional to the radius of the circular
array. The larger the radius is, the faster the purity decays with
the increase of the angle when θ ≤ 900 , and the more cycles
changed with the angle .

Figure 2. The actual intensity distribution of magnetic vector potential of

different modes l = l + nN when the excitation mode l = 1 and N=4

Fig.2 Shows the actual intensity distribution of magnetic

vector potential of different modes = + when
excitation mode = 1 and = 4. It shows that the OAM mode
1 can only maintain in a small angle range and the mode purity
gets worse when the angle increasing. The amplitude terms
J l + nN ( kR sin θ )
of different phase modes determine the
Figure 3. Purity of mode 1 with different radius (l=1, N=8)
contribution of the corresponding phase mode on the spatial
distribution [8]. And according to the first kind Bessel Function, Fig.4 shows the purity of mode 1 of the circular array with
the maximum amplitude is J0 and the more (l+nN) close to 0, the l=1, R=1λ and different array elements. It can be seen that the
strong the amplitude of this mode is to that of the others in main purity of mode 1 of the circular array is proportional to the
lobe ( ＜15°). So the actual available mode is the smallest one number of elements N. The smaller the number of elements, the
of infinite | + |. If the available mode is the excitation mode faster the purity decays at the beam angle.
l, l should satisfy | | ≤ | + | to insure mode l being the
strongest mode in the main lobe. From this inequality, l is solved
as follows:
When ∈ , ∈ , ∈ ＋ ,
(1)If the signs of n and l are the same , | | ≤ | + | can be
converted to | | ≤ | | + | | , it is clearly established;
(2)If the signs of n and l are opposite, | | ≤ | + | can be
converted to | | ≤ | | − | | :
a. When | | ≥ | | , the inequality can be written as | | ≤ | | −
| | . In this case, there is no solution. Figure 4. Purity of mode 1 with different N (l=1, R=1λ)
b. When | |＜| | , the inequality can be written as | | ≤ | | −
| |. So | | ≤ | | Fig.5 shows the purity of mode l of the array with N=8, R=1λ
Take | | = 1, we can get | | ≤ . and different excitation mode l. It can be seen that the purity of
mode l of the circular array is inversely proportional to the value
Particularly, because of the symmetry of series, when| | = ,
of the excitation mode l. The farther away the excitation mode
aliasing occurs between and − modes. So the limitation of is from zero, the faster the antenna purity decays with the angle
available modes of the radiated field in OAM phased array . When the excitation mode | | = , the purity curve of mode
antenna is | |＜ .
and mode − completely overlaps.
2
III. PURITY OF MODES OF OAM ARRAY
We define the purity of the desired mode as the ratio of the
amplitude squared of the magnetic vector potential of the
desired mode to the summation of the amplitude squared of
the magnetic vector potential of all the available modes in a
certain angle θ [9].
So the formula of purity can be expressed as:

National Natural Science Foundation of China (61575027)

Authorized licensed use limited to: ULAKBIM UASL - GAZI UNIV. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 14:57:11 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 excitation mode of the concentric circular array is significantly
smaller than that of the uniform circular array.

Figure 5. Purity of mode l with different excitation mode l (N=8, R=1λ) a. different radius b. different number of element on
(N=8,l=1,R1=0.5R2) each circle(R1=0.5λ,R2=1λ,l=1）
B. OAM Purity of Concentric Circular Array
…

R1
… …
RM
…

Figure 6. Concentric circular array antenna with M circles

In Fig.6, concentric circular array is constructed based on
uniform circular array antennas. It is constructed by M similar
circular arrays with different radius. The centers of these circular
array are arranged at a same point. The electric field of the
concentric circular array is the superposition of the electric
fields of all these circular arrays, and the array factor can be
written as
M
Farray =  fm (θ ,φ)
m=1
n=+∞
=  {(-i)
n=-∞
l+nN
N exp[i(l + nN )ϕ] Jl +nN (kR1 sinθ )} ⋅ A0 -  {(-i)
n=+∞
-...-  {(-i)l+nN N exp[i(l + nN )ϕ] Jl +nN (kRM sinθ )} ⋅ A0
n=-∞
Figure 7. The actual intensity distribution of magnetic vector potential with
excitation mode l=1, M=2, R1=0.5λ,R2=1λ and N=4 in different modes
Fig.7 shows the actual intensity distribution of magnetic
vector potential of a concentric circular array with l=1, M=2,
R1=0.5λ, R2=1λ and N=4 in different modes. It shows that mode
1 is the strongest mode in small angle. By observing the purity
performance under different parameters in Fig.8, we can
conclude that the purity of the mode of concentric circular array
is proportional to the number of the elements N of each circular
array, inversely proportional to the radius, and inversely
proportional to the modulus value of the excitation mode.
Compared with the purity distribution of the uniform circular
array in Fig.5, the angle that can maintain high purity of the
c. different excitation mode（N=8，R1=0.5λ, R2=1λ）
Figure 8. Purity of the excitation mode of the concentric array with different
parameters
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the relationship of available mode and excitation
mode of the OAM circular array antenna is analyzed. The
⑷
limitation of available mode| |＜ is proved through derivation.
n=+∞
n=-∞
l +nN
N exp[i(l + nN)ϕ] Jl+nN (kR2 sinθ )} ⋅ A0 It also puts forward the requirement to produce desired mode by
setting the appropriate excitation phases. In addition, the purity
of circular and concentric circular array is analyzed.
REFERENCES
[1] Allen, L., et al., Orbital angular momentum of light and the transformation
of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes. Physical Review A, 1992. 45(11): p.
8185-8189.
[2] Wang, J., et al., Terabit free-space data transmission employing orbital
angular momentum multiplexing. Nature Photonics, 2012. 6(7): p. 488-
496.
[3] Yan, Y., et al., High-capacity millimetre-wave communications with orbital
angular momentum multiplexing. Nature Communications, 2014. 5: p.
4876.
[4] Gibson, G., et al., Free-space information transfer using light beams
carrying orbital angular momentum. Optics Express, 2004. 12(22): p.
5448-5456.
[5] Bai, Q., et al. An experimental phased array for OAM generation. in
Antennas and Propagation Conference. 2014.
[6] Yuan, T., et al., Electromagnetic Vortex Imaging Using Uniform Concentric
Circular Arrays. IEEE Antennas & Wireless Propagation Letters, 2016. 15:
p. 1024-1027.
[7] Yao, Y., Liang, X., Zhu, W., Geng, J., & Jin, R. (2016). Phase mode analysis
of radio beams carrying orbital angular momentum. IEEE Antennas &
Wireless Propagation Letters, PP(99), 1-1.
[8] Rahim, T., & Davies, D. E. N. (1982). Effect of directional elements on the
directional response of circular antenna arrays. Microwaves Antennas &
Propagation Iee Proceedings H, 129(1), 18-22.
[9] Sun C , Zhang J , Xiong B , et al. Analysis of OAM Mode Purity of Optical
Vortex Beam Emitters[J]. IEEE Photonics Journal, 2017, PP(99):1-1.

National Natural Science Foundation of China (61575027)

Authorized licensed use limited to: ULAKBIM UASL - GAZI UNIV. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 14:57:11 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.