Experimental study on vortex beam generation based on micron-scale all-optical magnetic holographic structures

QIN Xueyun; WU Yue; ZHU Rongqi; ZHU Zhuqing

doi:10.7498/aps.74.20250649

Abstract

In recent years, vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have been widely applied to optical communications, optical manipulation, and precision measurement. However, traditional generation methods such as spiral phase plates, spatial light modulators, and metasurfaces, encounter several challenges, including structural rigidity, limited dynamic tunability, and inadequate integration capabilities. These limitations hinder the realization of reconfigurable and programmable vortex beam generation systems. In order to solve these problems, a novel vortex beam generation method based on all-optical magnetic holography is presented in this paper. In this technique, a single-pulse femtosecond laser is used in a dotted writing mode to engrave a pre-designed fork-shaped grating hologram onto the surface of a micron-scale magnetic material, GdFeCo. Under subsequent illumination with a plane wave, the vortex beam is reconstructed via the magneto-optical Faraday diffraction effect. Experimental results show that one-dimensional fork-shaped gratings can flexibly generate vortex beams with different topological charges (l = ±2, ±5, ±8), where the beam radius increases with the augment of topological charges. Furthermore, a two-dimensional fork-shaped grating, formed by superimposing horizontal and vertical one-dimensional gratings, can produce 3 × 3 vortex beam arrays with various topological charge distributions, enabling the spatial modulation of OAM. This method offers advantages such as reusability, long-term stability, and a compact structure, thus providing a programmable and reconfigurable platform for generating micro-structured vortex beams. Unlike traditional static optical elements, this approach enables dynamic, high-resolution, and easy-to-integrate solutions, and shows great application potential in OAM-based multi-channel optical communication, multi-particle manipulation, and parallel laser processing.

Keywords:

Authors and contacts

1.
School of Computer and Electronic Information, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
2.
School of Physics Science and Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
3.
Department of Information Engineering, Changzhi Polytechnic College, Changzhi 046000, China
4.
School of information Engineering, Nanjing Normal University Taizhou College, Taizhou 225300, China
5.
State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optical Precision Machinery and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China

Corresponding author: ZHU Zhuqing, zhuqingzhu@njnu.edu.cn

Funds: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12174196) and the State Key Laboratory of Optical Technology for Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. SKLAO2022001A17).

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References

[1]	Wang J, Liu J, Li S H, Zhao Y F, Du J, Zhu L 2022 Nanophotonics 11 645 Google Scholar
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图 1 全光磁全息生成涡旋光的原理图　(a1) 偏光显微镜下的全息图; (a2) Gd₂₇Fe_63.87Co_9.13材料的多层膜结构; (b1) 涡旋光实验光强图

Figure 1. Principle of vortex beam generation based on all-optical magnetic holography: (a1) Hologram observed under a polarizing optical microscope; (a2) multilayer film structure of the Gd₂₇Fe_63.87Co_9.13 material; (b1) experimental intensity distribution of the reconstructed vortex beam.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

图 2 二元磁光栅的法拉第效应　(a) 磁性材料不同位置的磁化方向; (b) 入射光经过磁性材料后的电场分布

Figure 2. The Faraday effect of binary magnetic gratings: (a) The magnetization directions of magnetic materials at different positions; (b) the electric field distribution of incident light after passing through magnetic materials.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

图 3 实验装置示意图, H1—H2为半波片; P1—P4为偏振片; SH为光开关; A为光阑; M1—M2为反射镜; Q为1/4波片; D为二向色镜; L为透镜; O为显微物镜; CCD为工业相机

Figure 3. Schematic of experimental setup, H1–H2 represent half-wave plates; P1–P4 represent polarizers; SH represents optical shutter; A represents aperture; M1–M2 represents mirrors; Q represents quarter-wave plate; D represents dichroic mirror; L represents lens; O represents objective lens; CCD represents industrial camera.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

图 4 反转尺寸、反转概率与激光能量密度之间的关系　(a) 不同激光能量密度下的反转尺寸; (b) 反转概率与激光能量密度之间的拟合曲线

Figure 4. Relationship between reversal size, reversal probability, and laser energy density: (a) Reversal sizes under different laser energy densities; (b) fitted curve of reversal probability versus laser energy density.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

图 5 涡旋光的生成　(a1)—(a3) 一维叉形光栅模拟图; (b1)—(b3) 涡旋光模拟光强图; (c1)—(c3) 偏光显微镜下的一维叉形光栅实验图; (d1)—(d3) 涡旋光实验光强图

Figure 5. Generation of vortex beams: (a1)–(a3) Simulated binary fork grating patterns; (b1)–(b3) simulated intensity distributions of vortex beams; (c1)–(c3) experimental images of one-dimensional fork gratings observed under a polarizing microscope; (d1)–(d3) experimental intensity distributions of the reconstructed vortex beams.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

图 6 涡旋光阵列的生成　(a1), (a2) 二维叉形光栅模拟图; (b1), (b2) 涡旋光阵列模拟光强图; (c1), (c2) 偏光显微镜下的二维叉形光栅实验图; (d1), (d2) 涡旋光阵列实验光强图

Figure 6. Generation of vortex beam arrays: (a1), (a2) Simulated two-dimensional fork grating patterns; (b1), (b2) simulated intensity distributions of vortex beam arrays; (c1), (c2) experimental images of two-dimensional fork gratings observed under a polarizing microscope; (d1), (d2) experimental intensity distributions of the reconstructed vortex beam arrays.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

[1]	Wang J, Liu J, Li S H, Zhao Y F, Du J, Zhu L 2022 Nanophotonics 11 645 Google Scholar
[2]	Yan W X, Chen Z Z, Long X, Gao Y, Yuan Z, Ren Z C, Wang X L, Ding J P, Wang H T 2024 Adv. Photonics 6 036002
[3]	Shi Z J, Wan Z S, Zhan Z Y, Liu K Y, Liu Q, Fu X 2023 Nat. Commun. 14 1869 Google Scholar
[4]	Zhu L H, Zhang X H, Rui G H, He J, Gu B, Zhan Q W 2023 Nanophotonics 12 4351 Google Scholar
[5]	Zhu L H, Tai Y P, Li H H, Hu H J, Li X Z, Cai Y J, Shen Y J 2023 Photonics Res. 11 1524 Google Scholar
[6]	Peng L, Yao J, Bai Y H, Sun Y F, Zeng J C, Ren Y X, Xie J X, Hu Z Y, Zhang Q, Yang Y J 2024 ACS Photonics 11 1213 Google Scholar
[7]	Gao W Y, Zhou Y, Li X, Zhang Y A, Zhang Q, Li M M, Yu X H, Yan S H, Xu X H, Yao B L 2024 Photonics Res. 12 2881 Google Scholar
[8]	Fang L, Padgett M J, Wang J 2017 Laser Photonics Rev. 11 1700183 Google Scholar
[9]	Zhu L H, Tang M M, Li H H, Tai Y P, Li X Z 2021 Nanophotonics 10 2487 Google Scholar
[10]	Qin X Y, Zhang H, Tang M M, Zhou Y J, Tai Y P, Li X Z 2024 Opt. Lett. 49 2213 Google Scholar
[11]	Wang J, Li K, Quan Z Q 2024 Photonics Insights 3 R05 Google Scholar
[12]	张胜蓝, 田喜敏, 许军伟, 徐亚宁, 李亮, 刘杰龙 2025 物理学报 74 064201 Google Scholar Zhang S L, Tian X M, Xu J W, Xu Y N, Li L, Liu J L 2025 Acta Phys. Sin. 74 064201 Google Scholar
[13]	Liu M Z, Lin P C, Huo P C, Qi H C, Jin R C, Zhang H, Ren Y Z, Song M W, Lu Y Q, Xu T 2025 Nat. Commu. 16 3994 Google Scholar
[14]	Zhou S Y, Li L, Gao L L, Zhou Z Y, Yang J Y, Zhang S R, Wang T L, Gao C Q, Fu S Y 2025 Light Sci. Appl. 14 167 Google Scholar
[15]	Rottmayer R E, Batra S, Buechel D, Challener W A, Hohlfeld J, Kubota Y, Li L, Lu B, Mihalcea C, Mountfield K, Pelhos K, Peng C, Rausch T, Seigler M A, Weller D, Yang X M 2006 IEEE Trans. Magn. 42 2417 Google Scholar
[16]	Challener W A, Peng C B, Itagi A V, Karns D, Peng W, Peng Y G, Yang X M, Zhu X B, Gokemeijer N J, Hsia Y T, Ju G, Rottmayer R E, Seigler M A, Gage E C 2009 Nat. Photonics 3 220 Google Scholar
[17]	Radu I, Vahaplar K, Stamm C, Kachel T, Pontius N, Dürr H A, Ostler T A, Barker J, Evans R F L, Chantrell R W, Tsukamoto A, Itoh A, Kirilyuk A, Rasing T, Kimel A V 2011 Nature 472 205 Google Scholar
[18]	Makowski M, Kolodziejczyk M, Bomba J, Frej A, Sypek M, Bolek J, Starobrat J, Tsukamoto A, Davies C S, Kirilyuk A, Stupakiewicz A 2022 J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 548 168989 Google Scholar
[19]	Makowski M, Bomba J, Frej A, Kolodziejczyk M, Sypek M, Shimobaba T, Ito T, Kirilyuk A, Stupakiewicz A 2022 Nat. Commun. 13 7286 Google Scholar
[20]	Mezrich R 1970 IEEE Trans. Magn. 6 537 Google Scholar
[21]	Allen L, Beijersbergen M W, Spreeuw R J C, Woerdman J P 1992 Phys. Rev. A 45 8185 Google Scholar
[22]	Qin X Y, Zhu L H, Hu H J, Tai Y P, Li X Z 2023 J. Appl. Phys. 133 013101 Google Scholar
[23]	Tai Y P, Fan H H, Ma X, Wei W J, Zhang H, Tang M M, Li X Z 2024 Opt. Express 32 10577 Google Scholar
[24]	朱凌峰, 王静, 郭苗军, 李晋红 2023 激光杂志 44 150 Zhu L F, Wang J, Guo M J, Li J H 2023 Laser J. 44 150

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