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Enhancing carrier injection balance in near-infrared (NIR) to visible upconversion devices (UCDs) is crucial for improving efficiency and stability. This study presents the incorporation of an insulating polymer (polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)) between an aluminum cathode and an electron transport layer to reduce excess electrons in a light-emitting layer, thus balancing electrode-injected electrons and NIR-generated holes. The optimized device achieved a fivefold increase in maximum luminance and upconversion efficiency compared to the control. Additionally, it demonstrated a fast optical response, a broad optical modulation range, and significant potential for bioimaging applications, achieving a maximum resolution of 1693 dpi. This approach provides an effective solution for enhancing carrier injection balance in UCDs.

Leggett inequality states that nonlocal hidden-variable models might still be incompatible with the predictions of quantum physics. However, its theoretical and experimental demonstration is only in the scenario of 2-dimensional maximally entangled systems. An open question remains as to whether the Leggett inequality can be violated by nonmaximally entangled states. Here, we answer this question both in theory and experiment. Specifically, from the point of view of geometry, we theoretically map the problem of maximizing the correlation measure in the Leggett inequality to maximizing the sum of an ellipse's diameter and semi-diameter axes, accordingly, demonstrating that the violation of the Leggett inequality requires a more robust entanglement than that of Bell's theory. Experimentally, by leveraging the controllable photonic orbital angular momentum entanglement, we demonstrate the violation of Leggett-type inequalities by more than 8.7 and 4.5 standard deviations under concurrence C = 0.95 and 0.9, respectively. Our observations indicate that, the requirement for quantum correlation should be increased to exclude a particular class of non-local hidden variable theories that abide by Leggett's model, providing insights into the boundaries of quantum correlation and the limitations imposed by non-local hidden variables.

Recent years have witnessed a growing research interest in the rotational Doppler effect associated with orbital angular momentum of light, emerging as a powerful tool to detect rotating bodies in remote sensing. However, this method, when exposed to the turbulence in a realistic environment, has some severe limitations, leading to the unrecognizable rotational Doppler signals overwhelmed in background noise. Here we put forward a concise yet efficient method that enables the turbulence-resilient detection of the rotational Doppler effect with cylindrical vector beams. Specifically, by adopting the polarization-encoded dual-channel detection system, the low-frequency noises caused by turbulence can be individually extracted and subtracted, and thus mitigate the effect of turbulence. We demonstrate our scheme by conducting proof-of-principle experiments, whose results manifest the feasibility of a practical sensor to detect the rotating bodies in non-laboratory conditions.

In the plane-wave angular-spectrum representation, we derive the analytical expressions for any order Laguerre-Gaussian beams propagating along the optical axis of uniaxial crystals. We further prove the orthogonality of propagating modes inside the uniaxial crystals, and investigate the energy efficiency as well as the behavior of spin-orbital coupling. Based on the analytical solutions, we propose a scheme for the transmission of structured light fields through the uniaxial crystals, which firstly decomposes the input fields into LG spectrum and then superposes all OAM components inside crystals to obtain the propagating optical fields. We use the trefoil image as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme. The evolution of optical fields and spectra of trefoil image are also studied.

We examine experimentally how the degree of position-momentum entanglement of photon pairs depends on the transverse coherence of the pump beam that excites them in a process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Using spatially incoherent light from a light-emitting diode, we obtain strong position correlation of the photons, but we find that transverse momentum correlation, and thus entanglement, is entirely absent. When we continuously vary the degree of spatial coherence on the pump beam, we observe the emergence of stronger momentum correlations and entanglement. We present theoretical arguments that explain our experimental results. Our results shed light on entanglement generation and can be applied to control entanglement for quantum information applications.

Optical vortices, carrying quantized orbital angular momentum (OAM) states, have been widely investigated because of their promising applications in both classical and quantum realms. Among these applications, efficient generation and measurement of OAM beams are critical. Current techniques available for generating OAM beams generally suffer from bulky size, low operation efficiency, or single-function or complicated fabrication processes. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to generate arbitrary optical vortices with a chip-scale device based on all-dielectric two-dimensional (2D) polarization-independent metasurface grating. Based on multi-beam interference in principle and nanofabrication techniques for implementation, our device allows efficient and simultaneous on-chip generation of multi-channel beams with different OAM. We further demonstrate that our device can also work reversely in detecting the OAM spectrum of various pure and mixed optical vortices (e.g., fractional OAM orders) with low crosstalk. Our scheme may find potential applications in developing new integrated photonics for OAM-based high-dimensional quantum information processing in future quantum network.

We demonstrate a new method to detect infrared optical vortex arrays efficiently, which is based on simultaneous up-conversion imaging and spiral phase contrast via second-harmonic generation (SHG) in the Fourier domain. In our experiment, we use a spatial light modulator to prepare a variety of 1064 nm structured vortex arrays and employ a vortex phase plate of different topological charges to serve as the nonlinear orbital angular momentum (OAM) filter. The SHG is done by mixing the Fourier spectra of input-structured vortices with a single OAM beam in a type-II potassium titanyl phosphate crystal. Then we can convert the input invisible vortex arrays into the visible SHG light fields, and the vortex cores are mapped and seen by bright Gaussian spots, revealing both their positions and topological charges. Our work has potential in the field of infrared imaging and monitoring.

A non-local spatial filtered imaging experiment using an orientation filter has been performed with spatially incoherent thermal light, which is based on Abbe-Porter imaging system. A two-dimensional periodic grid object and an orientation filter are placed in two correlated light beams, namely a test beam and a reference beam, generated by splitting the thermal light beam via a beam splitter. The filtering process has been produced by manipulating the orientation of a slit aperture, which is in the back focal plane of the biconvex imaging lens in the reference beam. The detected object is placed in the test beam, whose modulated images have been achieved through optical field intensity correlation measurement between the two correlated beams. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical analysis. The research results here show considerable possibilities to distributively manipulate the image of an object with spatially incoherent light source, which could find potential applications in the remote imaging technology in the fields of geological survey and spectral analysis.

Twisted light has recently gained enormous interest in communication systems ranging from fiber-optic to radio frequency regimes. Thus far, the light-emitting diode (LED) has not yet been exploited for orbital angular momentum (OAM) encoding to transmit data, which, however, could open up an opportunity towards a new model of secure indoor communication. Here, by multiplexing and demultiplexing red, green and blue (RGB) twisted beams derived from a white light emitting diode, we build a new visible light communication system with RGB colors serving as independent channels and with OAM superposition modes encoding the information. At the sender, by means of theta-modulation, we use a computer-controlled spatial light modulator to generate two-dimensional holographic gratings to encode a large alphabet with 16 different OAM superposition modes in each RGB channel. At the receiver, based on supervised machine learning, we develop a pattern recognition method to identify the characteristic mode patterns recorded by CCD cameras, and therefore, decoding the information. We succeed in demonstrating the transmission of color images and a piece of audio over a 6-meter indoor link with the fidelity over 96%.

We report a concise yet efficient experiment to extend the study of full Poincaré beams to incorporate the nonlinear optical effect. The main feature of our scheme is the employment of Type-II phase-matching KTP crystal to implement the second harmonic generation with structured vector light from invisible to visible region. Of particular interest is the revelation and visualization of the hidden topological structures transferred from the input polarization state to the output observable intensity patterns. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations. Our present work provides us with the insight into the interaction of full Poincaré beams with media in the nonlinear regime.

We demonstrate a simple experiment to produce chromatic orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams from a white-light source based on theta-modulation. The array of pixels of a single spatial light modulator (SLM) is divided into four sub-domains, each of which individually displays a holographic grating both for producing the desired OAM beam and for modulating the orientation of the blazed grating. In the Fourier plane of a 4f optical system, a tailor-made spatial filter is employed for the coloration of various OAM beams with different colors. In the imaging plane, we record the generated chromatic OAM beams of different topological charges as well as their superpositions, which appear as mixtures of red, green and blue (RGB) in different proportions. Our work may find direct application in optical information processing and in free-space optical communications.

Digital spiral imaging has been demonstrated as an effective optical tool to encode optical information and retrieve topographic information of an object. Here we develop a conceptually new and concise scheme for optical image encoding and decoding toward free-space digital spiral imaging. We experimentally demonstrate that the optical lattices with ℓ=±50 orbital angular momentum superpositions and a clover image with nearly 200 Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modes can be well encoded and successfully decoded. It is found that an image encoded/decoded with a two-index LG spectrum (considering both azimuthal and radial indices, ℓ and p) possesses much higher fidelity than that with a one-index LG spectrum (only considering the ℓ index). Our work provides an alternative tool for the image encoding/decoding scheme toward free-space optical communications.

The Arago-Poisson spot played an important role in the discovery of the wave nature of light. We demonstrate a novel way to shape the Arago-Poisson spot by partially twisting the phase fronts of the incident light beam. We use a spatial light modulator to generate the holographic gratings both for mimicking the circular opaque objects and for modulating the spiral phase profiles. For incomplete spiral phase of five- and tenfold symmetry, we observe the gradual formation of the on-axis bright spots upon propagation. Our results show that two fundamental but seemingly independent optical phenomena, namely, the Arago-Poisson spot and the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light, can be well connected by changing the phase height ϑ gradually from 0 to 2π. The experimental results are well interpreted visually by plotting the Poynting vector flows. In addition, based on the decomposed OAM spectra, the observations can also be understood from the controllable mixture of a fundamental Gaussian beam and an OAM beam. Our work is an elegant demonstration that spiral phase modulation can add to the optical tool to effectively shape the diffraction of light and may have potential applications in the field of optical manipulations.

We report an experiment of which-way information and a quantum eraser based on polarization-controlled interference of two twisted light beams carrying high orbital angular momentum (OAM) up to ℓ=±50 and ±100, respectively. By changing the polarization plane of one OAM beam from 0° to 90° with respect to that of the other OAM beam, we observe the gradual disappearance of the interference petal-like patterns into the noninterference single bright rings. Subsequently, we use the eraser of a diagonal polarizer to retrieve the characteristic petal-like interference. The experimental results can be well explained in the frame of single-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-like (GHZ-like) entanglement. Our work may be beneficial to understanding the wave-particle duality of light.

We study the propagation of a nonparaxial Gaussian beam in the isotropic Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ crystal under an external magnetic field. The analytical solutions in the paraxial limit are derived, which show that a vortex with topological charge m=2 (m=1) generates in the E_ (E(z)) component. Numerical calculations in the nonparaxial regime confirm that, with the assistance of an external magnetic field, the spin-to-orbital angular momentum coupling effect can occur even in the isotropic crystal. We also study the Faraday rotation of the nonparaxial Gaussian beam. At the center of the transverse plane, the rotation of the plane of polarization is linearly proportional to the magnetic field. However, the rotation is not uniform on the whole transverse plane, manifesting the nonparaxial effect.

We propose a feasible scheme to remotely prepare three-dimensional (3D) optical vortex lines. Our scheme relies on the complete description of high-dimensional orbital angular momentum (OAM) entanglement in terms of the Laguerre-Gaussian modes. It is theoretically demonstrated that by simply changing the pump beam waist, we can remotely prepare the target photons in the vortex states of 3D interesting morphology, appearing as twisted vortex strands, separated vortex loops, and vortex link or knot. Furthermore, we employ the biphoton Klyshko picture to illustrate the conservation law of the OAM index ℓ and the spreading effect of the radial mode index p, where the Schmidt numbers are calculated to show the high-dimensional capacity of the quantum channels involved in the present remote state preparation.

One difficulty of angular spectrum representation method in studying optical propagation inside anisotropic crystals is to calculate the double integrals containing highly oscillating functions. In this paper, we introduce an accuracy and numerically cheap method based on asymptotic expansion theory to overcome this difficulty, which therefore allows to compute optical fields with arbitrary incident beam and is not restricted to the paraxial limit. This numerical method is benchmarked against the analytical solutions in uniaxial crystals and excellent agreements between them are obtained. As an application, we adopt it to investigate the propagation of a Gaussian vortex-beam in a biaxial crystal. The general features of anisotropic dynamics and power conversion between field components are revealed. The numerical results is interpreted by making appropriate analytical approximation to the wave equations.

Hardy's nonlocality proof is considered as "the best version of Bell's theorem". We report an experimental implementation of this by measuring the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of entangled twisted photon pairs. Two advantages arise from using twisted photons. First, the limited OAM spectrum generated by parametric down-conversion provides a natural set of OAM non-maximally entangled states with selective degrees of entanglement. Second, the measurement of any non-trivial superposition of OAM states can be conveniently done with spatial light modulators. We measure states that are defined on asymmetric OAM Bloch spheres and show results which are incompatible with local realism.

Based on the plane-wave angular spectrum representation, we derive a formal expression for any light fields propagating in biaxial crystals, and particularly, present an effective numerical method to investigate the propagation behavior for a Gaussian light beam. Unlike uniaxial crystals, we observe the intriguing formation, repulsion and disappearance of vortex pairs, as the refractive indices deviate slightly and gradually from the uniaxial limit. In the Minkowski angular momentum picture, we also investigate the orbital angular momentum dynamics for both left- and right-handed circularly polarized components. Of further interest is the revelation of nonconservation of the angular momentum within the light field during the spin-orbit interactions, and the optical torque per photon that the light exerts on the biaxial crystal is quantified. We interpret these interesting phenomena by the weakly broken rotational invariance of biaxial crystals. The self-consistency of our theory is confirmed by the balance equation describing the conservation law of total angular momentum of filed and crystal in the Minkowski picture.

We present in this paper a wave coupling theory of linear electro-optic (EO) effect for quasi-phase matched (QPM) of focused Gaussian beam in an optical superlattice (OSL). The numerical results indicate that, due to the EO effect of an appropriate applied electric field, the output beam will form spatially inhomogeneous polarization, changing continuously in transverse section of beam; the confocal parameter has a significant impact on the output polarization of Gaussian beam and determines the half-wave voltage.

We propose a single-photon spin-orbit entangled state analyzer for investigating the effective dimensionality of the Hilbert space spanned by spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of twin photons from a spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). The Pancharatnam-Berry phase element, the key element called a q plate equipped in the analyzer, induces the coupling between spin and OAM. It is found that the Shannon dimensionality of quantum channels in SPDC can be evidently increased owing to the spin-orbit hyperentanglement.

We propose an orbital angular momentum (OAM) generator consisting of two conjugated electro-optic spiral phase plates with two longitudinal electrodes, which enables us to realize the electrically tunable generation of integer or noninteger optical vortices according to the input photon's polarization. We demonstrate that such an OAM generator allows the electro-optic management of the multidimensional OAM vector states, and it would have potential applications in quantum information processing system.

We demonstrate that single photons from a rotating q-plate exhibit an entanglement in three degrees of freedom of spin, orbital angular momentum, and the rotational Doppler shift (RDS) due to the nonconservation of total spin and orbital angular momenta. We find that the rotational Doppler shift deltaomega = Omega((delta)s + deltal) , where s, l and Omega are quantum numbers of spin, orbital angular momentum, and rotating velocity of the q-plate, respectively. Of interest is that the rotational Doppler shift directly reflects the rotational symmetry of q-plates and can be also expressed as deltaomega = (Omega)n , where n = 2(q-1) denotes the fold number of rotational symmetry. Besides, based on this single-photon spin-orbit-RDS entanglement, we propose an experimental scheme to sort photons of different frequency shifts according to individual orbital angular momentum.

We demonstrate that the conversion of spin-to-orbital angular momentum in a focused vectorial light beam can be forbidden or enhanced by the electric-field-erased or increased spatial anisotropy of a uniaxial crystal undergoing the Pockels effect. A focused right-handed circularly polarized quasi-Gaussian beam incident on an electro-optic crystal strontium barium niobate is taken to illustrate the effect, and a conversion-forbidden electric field E(0)=-16.87 kV/cm is found. Of special interest is that single photons generated in this effect exhibit an entanglement of 2 deg of freedom of spin and orbital angular momentum, and it is electro-optically controllable.

We propose an arbitrary-to-linear or linear-to-arbitrary polarization controller based on the mutual action of Faraday and Pockels effects in a single Bi(4)Ge(3)O(12) (BGO) crystal after the wave coupling theory describing these two effects. It is demonstrated that, the expected conversion of arbitrary-to-linear or linear-to-arbitrary polarization state of light can be realized by adjusting the applied electric and magnetic fields.

An athermal design for the KTP electro-optical modulator is presented. By using the wave coupling theory of linear electro-optic effect and taking account of thermal expansion, the more accurate athermal static phase retardation (ASPR) directions in potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) are found, and the optimized design for a transverse amplitude modulator at ASPR orientation is obtained. The numerical results show that the modulator with an athermal Soleil-Babinet compensator is of excellent thermal stability, and the acceptable error of the ASPR direction is less than 0.1 degrees.

Spin is an intrinsic property of the photon. A method for using an externally applied dc electric field to manipulate the transfer of spin angular momentum of light in an optically active medium is presented. To discuss this, we first develop a wave coupling theory of the mutual action of natural optical activity and the linear electro-optic effect. Besides being used for analyzing the electrically controlled transfer of spin angular momentum of light, the theory can also be used to describe the propagation of light traveling along an arbitrary direction in any optically active medium with an external dc electric field along an arbitrary direction.

The effect of the polarization state on electro-optic coupling is studied by using the wave coupling theory of the linear electro-optic effect. The numerical results show that the polarization state obviously influences the electro-optic coupling. The conditions for realizing perfect coupling are emphasized. As an application of perfect coupling, a novel polarization rotator, which can rotate the polarization of a light beam with an arbitrary angle but keep the output intensity unchanged, is presented.