Observation of the rotational frequency shift for light with intrinsic and orbital angular momentum

Author

Courtial, J. ; Dholakia, Kishan ; Allen, Lindsay ; Padgett, M.J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Phys. & Astron., St. Andrews Univ., UK

fYear

1998

fDate

8-8 May 1998

Firstpage

139

Lastpage

140

Abstract

Summary form only given.The frequency shift associated with circularly polarized light and a rotating polarizer was described nearly 20 years ago. Recently, in a fully quantum-mechanical calculation, Bialynicki-Birula calculated the frequency shift of an atomic resonance when an atom is rotated. Their result shows that the frequency shift of the angular momentum per photon and is the rotational frequency. This can be generalized to be a frequency shift imparted to a light beam possessing angular momentum when the beam is rotated with respect to the observer. We experimentally verified this result for light that is both circularly polarized and has an azimuthal phase structure.

Keywords

light polarisation; optical rotation; quantum optics; rotational states; angular momentum; atomic resonance; azimuthal phase structure; circularly polarized; circularly polarized light; frequency shift; fully quantum-mechanical calculation; intrinsic angular momentum; orbital angular momentum; rotating polarizer; rotational frequency shift; Chirp; Dispersion; Frequency; Optical polarization; Optical propagation; Pulse compression methods; Pulse measurements; Pulse shaping methods; Shape measurement; Space vector pulse width modulation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Quantum Electronics Conference, 1998. IQEC 98. Technical Digest. Summaries of papers presented at the International

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-541-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IQEC.1998.680296

Filename

680296