Optical Generation/Detection of Broadband Microwave Orbital Angular Momentum Modes

In this article, a novel electrically controlled optical broadband phase shifter (ECO-BPS) is proposed and experimentally investigated for broadband microwave orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode generation. Based on the proposed ECO-BPS and a 17-element circular antenna array, the effect of the phase error on the OAM mode quality is studied by comparing the OAM modes respectively synthesized by three phase schemes: ideal phase shifts, ECO-BPS phase shifts, and optical true time delay phase shifts. In addition, the crosstalk caused by the phase error in applications of OAM modes multiplexing is investigated in a Dammann vortex grating based OAM modes demultiplexing system. All numerical simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of the ECO-BPS in broadband microwave OAM applications.