Pancharatnam-Berry optical element sorter of full angular momentum eigenstate

We propose and numerically demonstrate a Pancharatnam-Berry optical element (PBOE) device that simultaneously sorts spin (SAM) and orbital (OAM) angular momentum. This device exploits the circular polarization selective properties of PBOEs to modulate independently the orthogonal SAM eigenstates within a geometric optical transformation that sorts OAM, enabling single measurement characterization of the full angular momentum eigenstate. This expands the available state space for OAM communication and enables characterization of the eigenmode composition of structured polarization beams. We define the two-dimensional orientation patterns of the transversely varying half-waveplate PBOEs that implement the angular momentum sorter. We show that the device discriminates the OAM and SAM eigenstates of optical beams including laser cavity modes such as Laguerre-Gaussian OAM eigenmodes, Hermite-Gaussian modes, and hybrid modes with complex structured polarization. We also demonstrate that it can determine the m parameter of higher order lm LG(m)(') Laguerre-Gaussian modes. The ability of this device to decode information from spatially structured optical phase has potential for applications in communication, encryption, modal characterization, and scientific measurements. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America