Circular Optical Arrays Using Waveguide Fed 45° Angled Mirrors

An array of optical waveguide fed 45° metal-coated mirrors are proposed and validated by simulation, for generating optical scalar and vector vortices. Subwavelength element-to-element spacings are achieved, which is not possible in traditional grating-based phased arrays. This vortex source can be superior over other methods like phase masks which are not planar process integrable with lasers and phase modulators. A simple plane wave reflection model is used to analyze the mirror and the results are matched with reasonable tolerance against simulation results. The spin and orbital angular momentum charges are directly calculated from the field values for quantifying the performance. Four- and eight-element arrays are studied. The matching of prediction with simulation has been good for linear, azimuthal and radial polarization. Good angular momentum conversion efficiencies are obtained for up to orbital angular momentum charges l = ±2. Important aspects of generating vortices with circular polarization are brought out. Directional beams with >10 dB gains are achieved. This is the first report in which a planar dielectric optical waveguide array with subwavelength spacing has achieved good angular momentum control for linearly, azimuthally, radially and circularly polarized beams, in the same geometry.