Controlling orbital angular momentum of an optical vortex by varying its ellipticity

An exact analytical expression is obtained for the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of a Gaussian optical vortex with a different degree of ellipticity. The OAM turned out to be proportional to the ratio of two Legendre polynomials of adjoining orders. It is shown that if an elliptical optical vortex is embedded into the center of the waist of a circularly symmetrical Gaussian beam, then the normalized OAM of such laser beam is fractional and it does not exceed the topological charge n. If, on the contrary, a circularly symmetrical optical vortex is embedded into the center of the waist of an elliptical Gaussian beam, then the OAM is equal to n. If the optical vortex and the Gaussian beam have the same (or matched) ellipticity degree, then the OAM of the laser beam is greater than n. Continuous varying of the OAM of a laser beam by varying its ellipticity degree can be used in optical trapping for accelerated motion of microscopic particles along an elliptical trajectory as well as in quantum informatics for detecting OAM-entangled photons. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.