1. Characteristics of Spiral Patterns Formed by Coaxial Interference between Two Vortex Beams with Different Radii of Wavefront Curvatures
- Author
-
Peng Li, Yuzong Gu, and Jingbo Ma
- Subjects
Wavefront ,Physics ,topological charge ,coaxial interference ,spiral pattern ,Geometry ,radius of wavefront curvature ,Radius ,Mach–Zehnder interferometer ,Interference (wave propagation) ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,TA1501-1820 ,Laguerre-Gaussian vortex beam ,Mach-Zehnder interferometer ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,Applied optics. Photonics ,Coaxial ,Instrumentation ,Topological quantum number ,Spiral ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,Sign (mathematics) - Abstract
Spiral pattern is formed for coaxial interference between two vortex beams with different radii of wavefront curvatures and different topological charges (TCs). A theoretical model considering various parameters (such as phase difference, radius of wavefront curvature, and TCs) is established to predict all kinds of interference patterns. An improved Mach-Zehnder interferometer is set up in an experiment to generate different kinds of spiral patterns and verify the theoretical model. The number of spiral lobes is determined by the absolute value of TCs’ difference between two vortex beams, and the twist direction relates to the sign of TCs’ difference and the difference of reciprocals for the radii of wavefront curvature, clockwise for the same sign, and counterclockwise for the opposite signs. The twist direction of the spiral pattern reverses and the lobes direction near the core of the pattern changes obviously when the spherical wave changes from convergence to divergence.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF