Enabling the study of photons orbital angular momentum for optical communications: Orbital angular momentum carrying beam modulation and demodulation using twsited nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulators

摘要

The internet data traffic capacity is reaching the limits imposed by optical fiber nonlinear effects, having almost exhausted the available degrees of freedom needed to orthogonally multiplex data. Therefore, new methods should be developed to avoid the capacity crunch. The orbital angular momentum (0AM) of photons may be used as an additional degree of freedom. In this article, in order to enable the study of applications of 0AM for optical communications, an experimental setup for modulation and demodulation of free space OAM carrying beams was conceived based on twsited nematic spatial light modulator technology. This work assesses the viability of this technology pointing that this low cost solution can enable the application of OAM for optical communications.