Transferring orbital and spin angular momenta of light to atoms

Light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), such as Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams, give rise to the violation of the standard dipolar selection rules during interaction with matter, yielding, in general, an exchange of angular momentum larger than (h) over bar per absorbed photon. By means of ab initio three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations, we investigate in detail the interaction of a hydrogen atom with intense Gaussian and LG light pulses. We analyze the dependence of the angular momentum exchange with the polarization, the OAM and the carrier-envelope phase of light, as well as with the relative position between the atom and the light vortex. In addition, a quantum-trajectory approach based on the de Broglie-Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics is used to gain physical insight into the absorption of angular momentum by the hydrogen atom.