Optical phased array radiating optical vortex with manipulated topological charges.

Optical antennas are key elements in quantum optics emitting and sensing, and behave wide range applications in optical domain. However, integration of optical antenna radiating orbital angular momentum is still a challenge in nano-scale. We theoretically demonstrate a sub-wavelength phased optical antenna array, which manipulates the distribution of the orbital angular momentum in the near field. Orbital angular momentum with topological charge of 4 can be obtained by controlling the phase distribution of the fundamental mode orbital angular momentum in each antenna element. Our results indicate this phased array may be utilized in high integrated optical communication systems. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America