B. Coutinho dos Santos

Conservation of orbital angular momentum in stimulated down-conversion

We report on an experiment demonstrating the conservation of the orbital angular momentum in stimulated down-conversion. It has been demonstrated that the orbital angular momentum is not transferred to the individual beams of the spontaneous down-conversion. It is also known that it is conserved when twin photons are taken individually. We observe the conservation law for an individual beam of the down-conversion through cavity-free stimulated emission.

Topological defects in moiré fringes with spiral zone plates

We present a study of spatial structures created by superposition of spiral zone plates used for generating optical beams with phase singularities. Moiré fringes are observed that show topological defects similar to those appearing in interference patterns of optical vortices. A brief theoretical discussion is included that supports the similarities between the two phenomena. Our results may lead to interesting applications to digital information processing by optical means.

Observation of Image Transfer and Phase Conjugation in Stimulated Down-Conversion

We observe experimentally the transfer of angular spectrum and image formation in the process of stimulated parametric down-conversion. Images and interference patterns can be transferred from either the pump or the auxiliary laser beams to the stimulated down-converted one. The stimulated field propagates as the complex conjugate of the auxiliary laser. The phase conjugation is observed through intensity pattern measurements.

Quantum analysis of the nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator with injected signal

In this paper we study the nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator with injected signal, both analytically and numerically. We develop a perturbation approach which allows us to find approximate analytical solutions, starting from the full equations of motion in the positive-P representation. We demonstrate the regimes of validity of our approximations via comparison with the full stochastic results. We find that, with reasonably low levels of injected signal, the system allows for demonstrations of quantum entanglement and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox. In contrast to the normal optical parametric oscillator operating below threshold, these features are demonstrated with relatively intense fields.

Orbital angular momentum exchange in parametric down conversion

Orbital angular momentum exchange, both in cavity free stimulated parametric down conversion and in an optical parametric oscillator, is studied. In both cases, the conditions for parametric amplification are discussed in terms of the orbital angular momentum exchange between the interacting fields. It is shown that in cavity free parametric down conversion, parametric amplification is conditioned to conserve orbital angular momentum. However, for parametric oscillation, cavity and anisotropy effects play a crucial role in the orbital angular momentum exchange between the interacting fields.

Transfer of orbital angular momentum in a multimode parametric oscillator

We investigate the transfer of orbital angular momentum (OAM) in a type-II optical parametric oscillator (OPO). We produce different kinds of transverse modes on the downconverted beams by pumping the OPO with a first-order Laguerre-Gaussian beam well above threshold. Different operation regimes are attained showing a rich variety of transverse modes bearing OAM.