Spiral Transformation for High-Resolution and Efficient Sorting of Optical Vortex Modes

Abstract: Mode sorting is an essential function for optical systems exploiting the orthogonality of photonic orbital angular momentum mode space. The familiar log-polar optical transformation provides an efficient yet simple approach, however with its resolution restricted by a considerable overlap between adjacent modes resulting from the limited excursion of the phase along one complete circle around the optical vortex axis that is transformed into a line segment with finite length. We propose and experimentally verify a new optical transformation that maps spirals instead of closed concentric circles to parallel lines. As the phase excursion along a spiral in the transverse plane of orbital angular momentum modes is theoretically unlimited, this new optical transformation separates vortex modes with superior resolution while maintaining unity efficiency.