Vortex mode generation in optical fiber using acousto-optic effect

Abstract

All-fiber wavelength tunable acousto-optic mode converter based on a tapered optical fiber is demonstrated to efficiently generate orbital angular momentum states of light. In our scheme an acoustic wave is deployed to the waist of tapered optical fiber where two degenerate $HE_{21}$ modes leading to +1 and -1 orbital angular momentum eigen-modes are resonantly excited. The excitation of $TM_{01}$ and $TE_{01}$ modes is suppressed by enlarging the intermodal index difference between near-degenerate spatial modes. Numerical calculation for optimization of the taper diameter is provided. The experimental characterization of generated states is performed by analyzing the output far-field pattern and the spatial interference fringes with a uniform reference beam.