Topological orbital angular momentum extraction and twofold protection of vortex transport

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Zhichan Hu
• Author: Domenico Bongiovanni
• Author: Ziteng Wang
• Author: Xiangdong Wang
• Author: Daohong Song
• Author: Jingjun Xu
• Author: Roberto Morandotti
• Author: Hrvoje Buljan
• Author: Zhigang Chen
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Science; (Department of Physics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Physics

Abstract (english)

Vortex phenomena are ubiquitous in nature. In optics, despite the availability of numerous techniques for vortex generation and detection, topological protection of vortex transport with desired orbital angular momentum (OAM) remains a challenge. Here, by use of topological disclination, we demonstrate a scheme to confine and guide vortices featuring arbitrary high-order charges. Such a scheme relies on twofold topological protection: a non-trivial winding in momentum space due to chiral... More symmetry, and a non-trivial winding in real space due to the complex coupling of OAM modes across the disclination structure. We unveil a vorticity-coordinated rotational symmetry, which sets up a universal relation between the vortex topological charge and the rotational symmetry order of the system. As an example, we construct photonic disclination lattices with a single core but different Cn symmetries and achieve robust transport of an optical vortex with preserved OAM solely corresponding to one selected zero-energy vortex mode at the mid-gap. Furthermore, we show that such topological structures can be used for vortex filtering to extract a chosen OAM mode from mixed excitations. Our results illustrate the fundamental interplay of vorticity, disclination and higher-order topology, which may open a new pathway for the development of OAM-based photonic devices such as vortex guides, fibres and lasers. Topological protection in disclination lattices that relies on non-trivial winding in momentum space and real space is used to confine and guide vortices that feature arbitrary high-order charges. This approach could help in the development of orbital angular momentum-based photonic devices. Less

• Keywords (english): vortices; light
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Nature Photonics
• Numbering: vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 162-169
• p-ISSN: 1749-4885
• e-ISSN: 1749-4893
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-024-01564-2
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:217:660037
• Publication: 2024-11-20
• Project: Number: KK.01.1.1.01.0004; Title (croatian): Provedba vrhunskih istraživanja u sklopu Znanstvenog centra izvrsnosti za kvantne i kompleksne sustave te reprezentacije Liejevih algebri; Title (english): Implementation of top research within the Scientific Center of Excellence for Quantum and Complex Systems, and Representations of Lie Algebras; Acronym: QuantiXLie; Leader: Hrvoje Buljan; Jurisdiction: eu; Funding stream: European Regional Development Fund
• Document URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-024-01564-2
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Public note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. Received: 10 April 2024. Accepted: 7 October 2024. Published online: 20 November 2024.
• Created on: 2025-03-17 10:20:51