Optical Doppler shift with structured light

When a light beam with a transverse spatially varying phase is considered for optical remote sensing, in addition to the usual longitudinal Doppler frequency shift of the returned signal induced by the motion of the scatter along the beam axis, a new transversal Doppler shift appears associated to the motion of the scatterer in the plane perpendicular to the beam axis. We discuss here how this new effect can be used to enhance the current capabilities of optical measurement systems, adding the capacity to detect more complex movements of scatters. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America