Authors: Jonathan Leach, Stephen Keen, Miles J. Padgett, Christopher Saunter, and Gordon D. Love
Abstract: “We measure the local skew angle of the Poynting vector within a helically-phased, exp (il φ), beam using a Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor. It is the skew angle of the Poynting vector with respect to the beam axis that gives rise to the orbital angular momentum of a light beam. We confirm that this skew angle is l/kr, corresponding to an orbital angular momentum of lћ per photon. Measurement of orbital angular momentum in this way is an alternative to interferometric techniques giving a non-ambiguous result to both the magnitude and sign of l from a single measurement, without any restriction on the optical bandwidth.”
Open Access
Publication: Optics Express
Issue/Year: Optics Express, Vol. 14, Issue 25, pp. 11919-11924 (2006)