Have you ever felt that the very title, Progress in Optics, conjured an image in your mind? Don’t you see a row of handsomely printed books, bearing the editorial stamp of one of the most brilliant members of the optics community, and chronicling the field of optics since the invention of the laser? If so, you are certain to move the bookend to make room for Volume 16, the latest of this series. It contains seven chapters on widely diverging topics, written by well-known authorities in their fields. These are: 1) Laser Selective Photophysics and Photochemistry by V. S. Letokhov, 2) Recent Advances in Phase Profiles (sic) Generation by J. J. Clair and C. I. Abitbol, 3 ) Computer-Generated Holograms: Techniques and Applications by W.-H. Lee, 4) Speckle Interferometry by A. E. Ennos, 5 ) Deformation  Invariant, Space-Variant Optical  Pattern Recognition by D. Casasent and D. Psaltis, 6) Light Emission from High-Current Surface-Spark Discharges by R. E. Beverly, and 7) Semiclassical Radiation  Theory within a  QuantumMechanical Framework by I. R. Senitzkt. The  breadth of topic  matter  spanned  by  these  chapters makes it impossible, for this reviewer at least, to pass judgement on the comprehensiveness, relevance, and completeness of every chapter. With an editorial board as prominent as that of Progress in Optics, however, it seems hardly likely that such comments should be necessary. It should certainly be possible to take the authority of each author as credible. The only remaining judgment to be  made on these chapters is their readability. In short, what are they like to read? The first sentence of the first chapter greets the eye with an obvious typographical error: “The creation of coherent laser light source, that have tunable radiation, opened the . . . .” Two pages later we find: “When two types of atoms or molecules of different isotopic composition ( A and B ) have even one spectral line that does not overlap with others, it is pos-

Progress in optics

One property of electromagnetic waves that has been recently explored is the ability to multiplex multiple beams, such that each beam has a unique helical phase front. The amount of phase front ‘twisting’ indicates the orbital angular momentum state number, and beams with different orbital angular momentum are orthogonal. Such orbital angular momentum based multiplexing can potentially increase the system capacity and spectral efficiency of millimetre-wave wireless communication links with a single aperture pair by transmitting multiple coaxial data streams. Here we demonstrate a 32-Gbit s−1 millimetre-wave link over 2.5 metres with a spectral efficiency of ~16 bit s−1 Hz−1 using four independent orbital–angular momentum beams on each of two polarizations. All eight orbital angular momentum channels are recovered with bit-error rates below 3.8 × 10−3. In addition, we demonstrate a millimetre-wave orbital angular momentum mode demultiplexer to demultiplex four orbital angular momentum channels with crosstalk less than −12.5 dB and show an 8-Gbit s−1 link containing two orbital angular momentum beams on each of two polarizations. High speed data transmission using orbital angular momentum beams has been recently demonstrated. Here, Yan et al. demonstrate a 32 Gbit/s millimetre-wave communication link using eight coaxially propagating independent orbital angular momentum beams with four orbital angular momentum states on two orthogonal polarizations.

/pdf/high-capacity-millimetre-wave-communications-with-orbital-7yf6ayr0p8.pdf

High-capacity millimetre-wave communications with orbital angular momentum multiplexing

Recent discoveries concerning rotating (helical) phase fronts and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of laser beams are applied to radio frequencies and comprehensive simulations of a radio OAM system are performed. We find that with the use of vector field-sensing electric and magnetic triaxial antennas, it is possible to unambiguously estimate the OAM in radio beams by local measurements at a single point, assuming ideal (noiseless) conditions and that the beam axis is known. Furthermore, we show that conventional antenna pattern optimization methods can be applied to OAM-generating circular arrays to enhance their directivity.

Orbital Angular Momentum in Radio—A System Study

We compare the technique of using the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of radio waves for generating multiple channels in a radio communication scenario with traditional multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) communication methods We demonstrate that, for certain array configurations in free space, traditional MIMO theory leads to eigen-modes identical to the OAM states From this we conclude that communicating over the sub-channels given by OAM states is a subset of the solutions offered by MIMO, and therefore does not offer any additional gains in capacity

https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/ws/files/4023050/2339120.pdf

Is Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) Based Radio Communication an Unexploited Area

We review optical phenomena associated with the internal energy redistribution which accompany propagation and transformations of monochromatic light fields in homogeneous media. The total energy flow (linear-momentum density, Poynting vector) can be divided into a spin part associated with the polarization and an orbital part associated with the spatial inhomogeneity. We give a general description of the internal flows in the coordinate and momentum (angular spectrum) representations for both nonparaxial and paraxial fields. This enables one to determine local densities and integral values of the spin and orbital angular momenta of the field. We analyse patterns of the internal flows in standard beam models (Gaussian, Laguerre–Gaussian, flat-top beam, etc), which provide an insightful picture of the energy transport. Emphasis is given to the singular points of the flow fields. We describe the spin–orbit and orbit–orbit interactions in the processes of beam focusing and symmetry breakdown. Finally, we consider how the energy flows manifest themselves in the mechanical action on probing particles and in the transformations of a propagating beam subjected to a transverse perturbation.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8978/13/5/053001/pdf

Internal flows and energy circulation in light beams

Novel measurement and approximation methodologies for studying orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes in radio beams, i.e., electromagnetic beam modes having helical phase fronts, are presented. We s ...

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2009RS004299

Orbital angular momentum in radio: Measurement methods

Starting from positive and negative helicity Maxwell equations expressed in Riemann-Silberstein vectors, we derive the ten usual and ten additional Poincar{\'e} invariants, the latter being related to the electromagnetic spin, i.e., the intrinsic rotation, or state of polarization, of the electromagnetic fields. Some of these invariants have apparently not been discussed in the literature before.

Conservation Laws in Generalized Riemann-Silberstein Electrodynamics

Applications of Electromagnetic OAM in Astrophysics and Space Physics Studies

We study theoretically the exchange of angular momentum between a photon beam and a plasma vortex, and demonstrate the possible excitation of photon angular momentum states in a plasma. This can be relevant to laboratory and space plasma diagnostics; radio astronomy self-calibration; and generating photon angular momentum beams. A static plasma perturbation with helical structure, and a rotating plasma vortex are studied in detail and a comparison between these two cases, and their relevance to the physical nature of photon OAM, is established.

Siavoush M. Mohammadi

Papers

Orbital Angular Momentum in Radio—A System Study

Orbital angular momentum in radio: Measurement methods

Conservation Laws in Generalized Riemann-Silberstein Electrodynamics

Applications of Electromagnetic OAM in Astrophysics and Space Physics Studies

Photon orbital angular momentum in a plasma vortex