Laser beam carrying orbital angular momentum scattering from a particle: Near-field intensity and phase numerical study

Abstract

The interaction of the light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) with a single spherical particle is explored using a commercial multi-physics simulation platform. The scattering of light with wavelength of 0.532 µm from an ice particle is presented. The research focuses on studying the light-matter interface within an observation volume of radius 10 times the wavelength (5.32 µm) and present near-field magnitude and phase of the scattered field. We place the particle at the various locations of a Gaussian beam, as well as move it to through the vortex and annulus of the light that carries OAM with topological charges of 1, 2 and 3. The numerical solutions showcase the variations of the scattering field complex values and provide a valuable insight in the field behaviour near and inside the particle for different illumination. We show two and three-dimensional scattering field magnitude and phase spatial distributions and their correlations.