Settled fast measurement of topological charge by direct extraction of plane wave from vortex beam*

Abstract

A method of measuring the vortex beam topological charge (TC) is proposed based on a device that can directly extract the plane wave form from the vortex beam in which the different propagation angles of the plane waves are uniquely related to the different TCs. Then the TC can be obtained by simply comparing the energy values perceived by two fixed sensors in the detection location with the help of twin omnidirectional energy absorbers (OEAs). Because the settled detection relies only on the simple quantitative value at two fixed positions, neither pattern recognition nor field analysis procedure is applied, thus allowing faster measurement. Some features of the methodology are investigated, and the numerical simulations verify the feasibility and robustness of the system.