Orbital Angular Momentum Waves: Generation, Detection and Emerging Applications

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has aroused a widespread interest in many fields, especially in telecommunications due to its potential for unleashing new capacity in the severely congested spectrum of commercial communication systems. Beams carrying OAM have a helical phase front and a field strength with a singularity along the axial center, which can be used for information transmission, imaging and particle manipulation. The number of orthogonal OAM modes in a single beam is theoretically infinite and each mode is an element of a complete orthogonal basis that can be employed for multiplexing different signals, thus greatly improving the spectrum efficiency. In this paper, we comprehensively summarize and compare the methods for generation and detection of optical OAM, radio OAM and acoustic OAM. Then, we represent the applications and technical challenges of OAM in communications, including free-space optical communications, optical fiber communications, radio communications and acoustic communications. To complete our survey, we also discuss the state of art of particle manipulation and target imaging with OAM beams

Improved OAM-Based Radar Targets Detection Using Uniform Concentric Circular Arrays

Without any relative moves or beam scanning, the novel Orbital-Angular-Momentum- (OAM-) based radar targets detection technique using uniform concentric circular arrays (UCCAs) shows the azimuthal estimation ability, which provides new perspective for radar system design. However, the main estimation method, that is, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), under this scheme suffers from low resolution. As a solution, this paper rebuilds the OAM-based radar targets detection model and introduces the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm to improve the resolution for detecting targets within the main lobes. The spatial smoothing technique is proposed to tackle the coherent problem brought by the proposed model. Analytical study and simulation demonstrate the superresolution estimation capacity the MUSIC algorithm can achieve for detecting targets within the main lobes. The performance of the MUSIC algorithm to detect targets not illuminated by the main lobes is further evaluated. Despite the fact that MUSIC algorithm loses the resolution advantage under this case, its estimation is more robust than that of the FFT method. Overall, the proposed MUSIC algorithm for the OAM-based radar system demonstrates the superresolution ability for detecting targets within the main lobes and good robustness for targets out of the main lobes

Linear angular momentum multiplexing-conceptualization and experimental evaluation with antenna arrays

Linear Angular Momentum Multiplexing is a new method for providing highly spectrally efficient short range communication between a transmitter and receiver, where one may move at speed transverse to the propagation. Such applications include rail, vehicle and hyperloop transport systems communicating with fixed infrastructure on the ground. This paper describes how the scientific concept of linear angular momentum multiplexing evolves from orbital angular momentum multiplexing. The essential parameters for implementing this concept are: a long array at least at one of the ends of the link; antenna element radiation characteristics; and the array element spacing relative to the propagation distance. These parameters are also backed by short range measurements carried out at 2.4GHz used to model the Rice fading channel and determine resilience to multipath fading

Energy Efficient Resource Allocation for UCA-Based OAM-MIMO System

The combination of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and multi-input multi-output (MIMO) is identified as an effective solution to improve energy efficiency (EE) in the next-generation wireless communication. According to the orthogonality of OAM, we adopt uniform circular array (UCA) to establish the transmitter and receiver of the OAM-MIMO system in this paper. Our goal is to maximize the EE of the system whilst satisfying the maximum total transmit power and the minimum capacity requirement of each mode. Due to the inter-interference of different UCA at the same mode, the optimization problem involving the power allocation of modes is non-convex, thus is difficult to solve directly. To tackle this problem, the optimization problem is transformed into two sub-problems by using the fractional programming. Then we develop a dual-layer iteration algorithm where the nonconvex power allocation problem is transformed into a convex problem by exploiting the the first-order Taylor approximation in the inner layer, and the dichotomy is used to update EE in the outer layer. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed solution, and demonstrate the superiority of the OAM-MIMO system over the conventional MIMO system from the perspective of EE

Novel Insights into Orbital Angular Momentum Beams: From Fundamentals, Devices to Applications

It is well-known by now that the angular momentum carried by elementary particles can be categorized as spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM). In the early 1900s, Poynting recognized that a particle, such as a photon, can carry SAM, which has only two possible states, i.e., clockwise and anticlockwise circular polarization states. However, only fairly recently, in 1992, Allen et al. discovered that photons with helical phase fronts can carry OAM, which has infinite orthogonal states. In the past two decades, the OAM-carrying beam, due to its unique features, has gained increasing interest from many different research communities, including physics, chemistry, and engineering. Its twisted phase front and intensity distribution have enabled a variety of applications, such as micromanipulation, laser beam machining, nonlinear matter interactions, imaging, sensing, quantum cryptography and classical communications. This book aims to explore novel insights of OAM beams. It focuses on state-of-the-art advances in fundamental theories, devices and applications, as well as future perspectives of OAM beams

Ultra wideband vortex antenna array design for high capacity radio links

In thispaperthe development principles for calculation and construction of the antenna for «smooth» transmission and reception of multichannel ultra-wideband signals with a given spiral phase front applied in Radio-over-fiber system for the seamless data transmission are discussed. The detail description of the current state of research in this field is presented and deeply analyzed, so finally the new unique solutions are proposed and described in detail.Since the transceiver antenna has a significant effect on the signal shape working as a spatio-temporal filter, then the phase of the emitted wave (spin-orbital state) depends only on the antenna geometry. So the inverse problem of the antenna theory should be solved, when the antenna array configuration is synthesized on the basis of the given aperture.The antenna is considered as distributed in-space volume antenna arraybased on tripoles, providing the reception of a «tangled» signal with wave division and spin-orbital state multiplexing. The antenna is calculated using a mathematical and computer modelling and characterized with stable characteristics in the ultra-wide frequency band.This work is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation under the Basic part of the State assignment for higher education organizations and Scholarship of the President of Russian Federation for young scientists and PhD students who carry out perspective researches in the priority modernization areas of the Russian economy

Roadmap on structured light

Structured light refers to the generation and application of custom light fields. As the tools and technology to create and detect structured light have evolved, steadily the applications have begun to emerge. This roadmap touches on the key fields within structured light from the perspective of experts in those areas, providing insight into the current state and the challenges their respective fields face. Collectively the roadmap outlines the venerable nature of structured light research and the exciting prospects for the future that are yet to be realized