Abstract
We introduce the concept of quasi-intrinsic angular momentum to denote fields for which the mean value of the angular momentum is unaltered by a lateral shift of the rotation axis but the spectrum changes. This property is exemplified by the orbital angular momentum of a beam of light about its propagation direction. We propose an interferometric experiment to measure efficiently the exact angular momentum spectrum and variance for light beams with any arbitrary spatial distribution.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 113901-1 |
| Number of pages | 113900 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2006 |
Keywords
- quasi-intrinsic angular momentum
- spectrum
- orbital angular momentum
- light
- optics
- photonics