Near-perfect sorting of orbital angular momentum and angular position states of light

Malcolm N. O'Sullivan*, Mohammad Mirhosseini, Mehul Malik, Robert W. Boyd

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

117 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a novel method for efficient sorting of photons prepared in states of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and angular position (ANG). A log-polar optical transform is used in combination with a holographic beam-splitting method to achieve better mode discrimination and reduced cross-talk than reported previously. Simulating this method for 7 modes, we have calculated an improved mutual information of 2.43 bits/photon and 2.29 bits/photon for OAM and ANG modes respectively. In addition, we present preliminary results from an experimental implementation of this technique. This method is expected to have important applications for high-dimensional quantum key distribution systems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24444-24449
Number of pages6
JournalOptics Express
Volume20
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Oct 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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