Detecting the topological charge of a vortex beam by an arc slit diffraction

Abstract

The simple and efficient measurement of the light orbital angular momentum (OAM) is essential to both the classical and quantum applications with vortex beams. Here, we study the diffraction pattern in the far field when a vortex beam passes through an arc slit and demonstrate experimentally that a light spot of the diffraction pattern has a displacement which is linear to the topological charge (TC) of the incident vortex beam. Based on this property, this method is capable of measuring both modulus and sign of TC of the vortex beam. Furthermore, this scheme allows identifying multiple OAM states simultaneously.