Twisted light, a growing field

In the 90s it was shown that light carrying orbital angular momentum, that is twisted light, can be produced at will in the lab using conventional lasers and optics [1].

The seminal work by Allen et al in 1992 [2] originated much interest, and in a few years the research on twisted light expanded to very different areas. Nowadays, one finds articles in topics such as: the generation of beams [1], optical tweezers [3], applications in quantum information [4], interaction with atoms and molecules [5], cavity-QED [6], interaction with Bose-Einstein condensates [7].

Number of time cited per year for Allen et al [1];
source: Web of Science.

The study of the interaction of twisted light and solid-state systems started in the late 2000; since then some interesting results have been predicted and observed. However, there is still much room for new research in the area.

Theoretical studies in solid-state physics predict, for example: that TL induce electric currents and secondary magnetic fields in bulk and quantum rings [8,9], new electronic transitions (forbidden
for plane waves) in quantum dots [10], deflection of electron wave-packets in semiconductors [11], new transitions at normal incidence (forbidden for plane waves) in nanostructures [12, 13], and new magnetic phenomena close to the phase singularity [14]. On the other hand, experiments have been performed to understand for instance excitonic effects in GaN [15], spin-polarized photoemission from GaAs [16].

In future post we will cover in more detail the work done in twisted light--solid interaction.

References

[1] Padgett M, Courtial J and Allen L 2004 Physics Today 57 35.
[2] Allen L., Beijersbergen M. W., Spreeuw R. J. C. and Woerdman J. P., Phys. Rev. A, 45 (1992) 8185.
[3] Padgett M and Bowman R 2011 Nature Photon. 5 343.
[4] D’Ambrosio V, Spagnolo N, Del Re L, Slussarenko S, Li Y, Kwek L C, Marucci L, Walborn S P,
Aolita L and Sciarrino F 2013 Nat. Commun. 4 2432.
[5] Babiker M, Bennett C R, Andrews D L and D´avila Romero L C 2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 143601.
[6] Al-Awfi S. and Babiker M., Phys. Rev. A, 61 (2000) 033401.
[7] Andersen M. F., Ryu C., Clade P., Natarajan V., Vaziri A., Helmerson K. and Phillips W. D., Phys.
Rev. Lett., 97 (2006) 170406.
[8] Quinteiro G F and Tamborenea P I 2009 Europhys. Lett. 85 47001.
[9] Quinteiro G F and Berakdar J 2009 Optics Express 17 20465.
[10] Quinteiro G F and Tamborenea P I 2010 Phys. Rev. B 82 125207.
[11] Watzel J, Moskalenko A S and Berakdar J 2012 Optics Express 20 27792.
[12] Sbierski B, Quinteiro G and Tamborenea P 2013 J. Phys. Cond. Matter 25 385301.
[13] arXiv:1403.7229 [cond-mat.mes-hall].
[14] arXiv:1401.8147 [physics.optics].
[15] Ueno Y, Toda Y, Adachi S, Morita R and Tawara T 2009 Optics Express 17 20567.
[16] Clayburn N B, McCarter J L, Dreiling J M, Poelker M, Ryan D M and Gay T J 2013 Phys. Rev.
B 87 035204.