Unveiling a truncated optical lattice associated with a triangular aperture using light's orbital angular momentum

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Jul 30;105(5):053904. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.053904. Epub 2010 Jul 29.

Abstract

We show that the orbital angular momentum can be used to unveil lattice properties hidden in diffraction patterns of a simple triangular aperture. Depending on the orbital angular momentum of the incident beam, the far field diffraction pattern reveals a truncated optical lattice associated with the illuminated aperture. This effect can be used to measure the topological charge of light beams.