Launching OAM-carrying waves by a leaky circular current loop

We rigorously analyze the electromagnetic field radiated by a leaky circular current loop. The analysis establishes that this simple structure is capable of launching orbital angular momentum (OAM)-carrying waves, which may be employed for communication applications. The leaky loop may also be employed to model one of the radiating modes of a circular leaky wave antenna (CLWA). The analysis employs a polar transmission representation along with a Kontorovich-Lebedev transform to derive integral representations of the radiated field.