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Effects of Misalignment on Diffraction of Laguerre-Gauss Vortex Beams by a

Circular Aperture

Conference Paper · January 2015

DOI: 10.1364/FIO.2015.JTu4A.74

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Anindya Ambuj Reeta Vyas

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 JTu4A.74.pdf Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science 2015 © OSA 2015

Effects of Misalignment on Diffraction of

Laguerre-Gauss Vortex Beams by a Circular
Aperture

Anindya Ambuj, Reeta Vyas, and Surendra Singh

Physics Department, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR 72701
ssingh@uark.edu

Abstract: Diffraction of Laguerre-Gauss vortex beams by a circular aperture, when the

beam and aperture axes differ is studied theoretically and experimentally for different angular
momentum indices and relative displacements of beam and aperture axes.
© 2015 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (050.1940) Diffraction, (080.4865) Optical Vortices, (260.6042) Singular optics

Diffraction is a well-known phenomena that arises whenever a wave field encounters an obstruction. Spatial char-
acteristics of the diffraction pattern depend on the the incident wave field and aperture geometry. For example, the
diffraction of a plane wave of light by a slit and a circular aperture results in the sinc-squared and the Airy intensity
patterns, respectively. On the other hand, the diffraction of Laguerre-Gauss vortex (LGV) beams by simple apertures
such as a slit, regular polygons and circular apertures, when the beam axis coincides with the aperture axis, has been
studied relatively recently and shows many unexpected features [1–7]. These beams have ρ ` ei`ϕ transverse spatial de-
pendence, where ρ is the distance from the beam axis, ϕ the azimuthal angle, and ` is the orbital angular momentum
index.
When the beam axis differs from the aperture axis, many of these features begin to dissipate. We study the diffraction
by a circular aperture of an LGV beam whose axis is misaligned relative to the aperture axis. Misalignment is quantified
in terms of beam axis displacement from the center of the aperture in the aperture plane and the angle between the
two axes and the dependence of diffraction pattern on these parameters is investigated. We find that, in addition to
the dependence of the spatial characteristics of diffraction on these parameters, there is strong dependence on the
orbital angular momentum index of the incident LGV beam. Evolution of the diffraction pattern and vortex structure
is investigated in detail for several different values of ` and various beam axis displacements and tilts relative to the
aperture axis. Experimental results are compared with the predictions of theoretical calculations.

References
1. Q. S. Ferreira, A. J. Jesus-Silva, E. J. S. Fonseca, and J. M. Hickmann, “Fraunhofer diffraction of light with
orbital angular momentum by a slit,” Opt. Lett. 36, 3106-3108 (2011).
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ity,” Optics and Lasers in Engineering 47, 123-126 (2009).
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slit diffraction of Laguerre-Gauss vortex beams,” Journal of Modern Optics 59, 1232-1242 (2012).
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a Circular Aperture,” Optics Letters 39, 5475-5478 (2014)
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