Orbit–Orbit Interaction in Spatiotemporal Optical Vortex

Abstract

While spin–orbit interaction has been extensively studied, few investigations have reported on the interaction between orbital angular momenta (OAMs). In this work, we study a new type of orbit–orbit coupling between the longitudinal OAM and the transverse OAM carried by a three-dimensional (3D) spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) in the process of tight focusing. The 3D STOV possesses orthogonal OAMs in the x–y, t–x, and y–t planes, and is preconditioned to overcome the spatiotemporal astigmatism effect. x, y, and t are the axes in the spatiotemporal domain. The corresponding focused wavepacket is calculated by employing the Debye diffraction theory, showing that a phase singularity ring is generated by the interactions among the transverse and longitudinal vortices in the highly confined STOV. The Fourier-transform decomposition of the Debye integral is employed to analyze the mechanism of the orbit–orbit interaction. This is the first revelation of coupling between the longitudinal OAM and the transverse OAM, paving the way for potential applications in optical trapping, laser machining, nonlinear light–matter interactions, and more.