Vortex sensing diffraction gratings

We demonstrate a specially designed vortex sensing diffraction grating that generates multiple vortex patterns in the different diffracted orders. When this grating is illuminated with a separate vortex beam, the sign and order of the topological charge of the incident beam can be easily detected. Experimental results are shown for a variety of vortex beams including fractional values of the topological charge, and where both the diffraction grating and incident vortex illumination beam are generated by two different liquid crystal displays (LCDs). The programmability offered by the LCDs offers extremely convenient flexibility. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America