Chaibi, AMafusire, CForbes, A2014-06-172014-06-172013-09Chaibi, A, Mafusire, C and Forbes, A. 2013. Propagation of orbital angular momentum carrying beams through a perturbing medium. Journal of Optics, vol. 15(10), pp2040-8978http://iopscience.iop.org/2040-8986/15/10/105706/pdf/2040-8986_15_10_105706.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10204/7484Copyright: 2013 IOP Publishing. This is an ABSTRACT ONLY. The definitive version is published in Journal of Optics, vol. 15(10), pp 1- 10The orbital angular momentum of light has been suggested as a means of information transfer over free-space, yet the detected optical vortex is known to be sensitive to perturbation. Such effects have been studied theoretically, in particular through turbulence. Here we demonstrate a simple apparatus to introduce turbulence-like distortions to optical fields propagating over a long path. We create vortex beams and observe their propagation through a heated spinning pipe, known to mimic the two primary atmospheric aberrations, namely tip–tilt and defocus. We use a digital decomposition tool to modally resolve the distorted vortex beam into its azimuthal components to observe the impact of the medium on the detection of the encoded vortex charge. Such techniques are useful in studies of free-space optical communication with orbital angular momentum.enOrbital angular momentumOAMTurbulenceVortex beamsArticleChaibi, A., Mafusire, C., & Forbes, A. (2013). Propagation of orbital angular momentum carrying beams through a perturbing medium. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7484Chaibi, A, C Mafusire, and A Forbes "Propagation of orbital angular momentum carrying beams through a perturbing medium." (2013) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7484Chaibi A, Mafusire C, Forbes A. Propagation of orbital angular momentum carrying beams through a perturbing medium. 2013; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7484.TY - Article AU - Chaibi, A AU - Mafusire, C AU - Forbes, A AB - The orbital angular momentum of light has been suggested as a means of information transfer over free-space, yet the detected optical vortex is known to be sensitive to perturbation. Such effects have been studied theoretically, in particular through turbulence. Here we demonstrate a simple apparatus to introduce turbulence-like distortions to optical fields propagating over a long path. We create vortex beams and observe their propagation through a heated spinning pipe, known to mimic the two primary atmospheric aberrations, namely tip–tilt and defocus. We use a digital decomposition tool to modally resolve the distorted vortex beam into its azimuthal components to observe the impact of the medium on the detection of the encoded vortex charge. Such techniques are useful in studies of free-space optical communication with orbital angular momentum. DA - 2013-09 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Orbital angular momentum KW - OAM KW - Turbulence KW - Vortex beams LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2013 SM - 2040-8978 T1 - Propagation of orbital angular momentum carrying beams through a perturbing medium TI - Propagation of orbital angular momentum carrying beams through a perturbing medium UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7484 ER -