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arXiv · 2105.11032

Second-harmonic generation and the conservation of spatiotemporal orbital angular momentum of light

Guan Gui·Nathan J. Brooks·Henry C. Kapteyn·Margaret M. Murnane·Chen-Ting Liao
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Abstract

Light with spatiotemporal orbital angular momentum (ST-OAM) is a recently discovered type of structured and localized electromagnetic field. This field carries characteristic space-time spiral phase structure and transverse intrinsic OAM. In this work, we present the generation and characterization of the second-harmonic of ST-OAM pulses. We uncovered the conservation of transverse OAM in a second-harmonic generation process, where the space-time topological charge of the fundamental field is doubled along with the optical frequency. Our experiment thus suggests a general ST-OAM nonlinear scaling rule - analogous to that in conventional OAM of light. Furthermore, we observe that the topology of a second-harmonic ST-OAM pulse can be modified by complex spatiotemporal astigmatism, giving rise to multiple phase singularities separated in space and time. Our study opens a new route for nonlinear conversion and scaling of light carrying ST-OAM with the potential for driving other secondary ST-OAM sources of electromagnetic fields and beyond.

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Guan Gui, Nathan J. Brooks, Henry C. Kapteyn, Margaret M. Murnane, Chen-Ting Liao. 2021-05-23. Second-harmonic generation and the conservation of spatiotemporal orbital angular momentum of light. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00841-8

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