Experimentation on Laguerre-Gaussian laser beams for QI application

Abstract

It is well known that Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM), resulting from a phase singularity and created from the readily available Hermite-Gaussian (HG) laser beam, carry the potential for providing an unlimited number of orbital angular momentum states that could be used for enhanced processing of quantum info mation (QI). This paper presents a comprehensive set of experimentation on the fabrication and use of computer generated holograms to create LG beams from the HG profile of an ordinary He-Ne laser and characterization thereof in preparation for QI applications.