Simultaneous identification of the azimuthal and radial mode indices of Laguerre-Gaussian beams using a spiral phase grating

Transfer of information using optical vortex beams as signal carriers can extremely extend the capacity and spectral efficiency in optical communication systems. One of the key problems is to accurately measure the mode indices including radial mode p and topological charge l at the receiver side of an optical vortices transmission system. In this paper, we present a new scheme to determine the mode indices of optical vortices by using spiral phase gratings. Based on the Fresnel diffraction integral theory, the far-field diffraction intensity distributions of vortex beams through the gratings are numerically calculated. Simulation results show that the annular-shaped intensity profiles of incident vortex beams evolve to bright spot array diffraction patterns, which render the information of the mode indices. Specifically, the magnitude of topological charge l and radial index p can be easily determined by counting the number of the corresponding bright stripes. And the orientation of the diffraction optical fields reveals the sign of the topological charge. Experiments are implemented to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed detecting method by uploading such phase gratings on a reflective phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The experimental observations are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.