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Phys. Rev. A 45, 8185 - 8189 (1992)

Orbital angular momentum of light and the transformation of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes

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L. Allen, M. W. Beijersbergen, R. J. C. Spreeuw, and J. P. Woerdman
Huygens Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

Received 6 January 1992

Laser light with a Laguerre-Gaussian amplitude distribution is found to have a well-defined orbital angular momentum. An astigmatic optical system may be used to transform a high-order Laguerre-Gaussian mode into a high-order Hermite-Gaussian mode reversibly. An experiment is proposed to measure the mechanical torque induced by the transfer of orbital angular momentum associated with such a transformation.


©1992 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.45.8185
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.45.8185
PACS: 42.50.Vk

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