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Controlling the modal content coupled into an optical fiber can be desireable in many situations, e.g. for adjusting the sensitivity of the guided field distribution to external perturbations. For this purpose we used a monolithic setup of a phase plate at a fiber inpute facet to excite selectivly higher order modes, which theoretically can provide a mode purity of more than 99%. We investigated the capabilities of this approach by complete modal decomposition of the fiber output signals, considering the achievable mode purity with respect to several possible imperfections of the setup. The experiments are compared with detailed numerical simulations and show a high agreement. Additionally a comparison with a well known setup with free space phase plates was undertaken. This showed the monolithic setup to be energetically twice as efficient., Comment: Proc. SPIE 9343, Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XVII, 93431P (March 3, 2015)

Teleportation is the most widely discussed application of the basic principles of quantum mechanics. Fundamentally, this process describes the transmission of information, which involves transport of neither matter nor energy. The implicit assumption, however, is that this scheme is of inherently nonlocal nature, and therefore exclusive to quantum systems. Here, we show that the concept can be readily generalized beyond the quantum realm. We present an optical implementation of the teleportation protocol solely based on classical entanglement between spatial and modal degrees of freedom, entirely independent of nonlocality. Our findings could enable novel methods for distributing information between different transmission channels and may provide the means to leverage the advantages of both quantum and classical systems to create a robust hybrid communication infrastructure.

Here we employ both dynamic and geometric phase control of light to produce radially modulated vector-vortex modes, the natural modes of optical fibers. We then measure these modes using a vector modal decomposition set-up as well as a tomography measurement, the latter providing a degree of the non-separability of the vector states, akin to an entanglement measure for quantum states. We demonstrate the versatility of the approach by creating the natural modes of a step-index fiber, which are known to exhibit strong mode coupling, and measure the modal cross-talk and non-separability decay during propagation. Our approach will be useful in mode division multiplexing schemes for transport of classical and quantum states., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

Mode division multiplexing has been mooted as a future technology to address the impending data crunch of existing fiber networks. Present demonstrations delineate the light source from the mode creation steps, potentially inhibiting integrated solutions. Here we demonstrate an integrated mode generating source in the form of a digitally controlled solid state laser with an intra-cavity spatial light modulator. In our proof-of-principle experiment we create fiber modes on demand and couple them directly into a few-mode fiber, where after transmission they are decoupled by modal decomposition. This is the first demonstration of a single source for encoding information into the spatial modes of light.

There is significant interest in tailoring wave packets that transversely accelerate during propagation. The first realisation was in the optical domain, the Airy beam. Valid in the paraxial approximation, such beams were shown to transversely accelerate while following a parabolic caustic, even if the centroid itself travelled along a rectilinear path. Later, non-paraxial optical fields in the form of Weber and Mathieu beams were demonstrated, as well as non-optical wave packets with electrons. Such fields have found a plethora of applications from particle manipulation, spatial-temporal beam control, plasma control to non-linear optics. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, the angular acceleration of light, achieved by non-canonical superpositions of Bessel beams carrying orbital angular momentum. We show that by adjustment of a single parameter the acceleration and deceleration may be tuned continuously. We observe an unexpected energy transfer mechanism between spatial regions of the field which we investigate experimentally and theoretically. Our findings offer a new class of optical field that will enable studies in matter waves and opto-fluidics., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

We present a real-time method to determine the beam propagation ratio M2 of laser beams. The all-optical measurement of modal amplitudes yields M2 parameters conform to the ISO standard method. The experimental technique is simple and fast, which allows to investigate laser beams under conditions inaccessible to other methods., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, published in Optics Express