Integrated emitters of cylindrically structured light beams

Emerging applications based on optical beams carrying orbital angular momentum will likely require photonic integrated devices and circuits for miniaturization, improved performance and enhanced functionality. Recently we demonstrated a novel emitter of cylindrical optical vortex beams that carry photonic orbital angular momentum. The emitter consisted of a whispering gallery mode resonator embedded with gratings in the azimuthal angular dimension. This method can be generalized to produce other types of structured light beams that have some kind of cylindrical symmetry. The applications potentials and challenges in the devices in optical communications, quantum information systems, and optical sensing, imaging, and manipulation systems are also discussed.