轨道角动量光信号处理研究进展

Research progress of optical signal processing with orbital angular momentum

携带轨道角动量的光束利用了光子横向空间分布,其具有空间螺旋相位波前。近年来,类比波分复用技术,轨道角动量复用技术引起了国内外的广泛关注并在高速大容量光传输方面取得了显著进展。值得注意的是,除了光传输,光处理也是光通信系统的关键技术。一个完整的轨道角动量光通信网络系统,既包括网络链路的轨道角动量复用传输,也包括网络节点处的轨道角动量信号处理。回顾了基于轨道角动量的光信号处理技术的研究进展,全面综述了不同功能的轨道角动量光信号处理技术以及不同应用场景中的轨道角动量光信号处理技术,同时对其未来发展趋势进行了分析和前景展望。轨道角动量光信号处理技术完善了基于轨道角动量的空分复用光通信系统,有望为实现高效灵活的轨道角动量信息管理和应对光通信新容量危机提供解决方案。

Light beams carrying OAM(orbital angular momentum)exploit the transverse spatial distribution of photons and have helical phase front.In recent years,similar to the WDM(wavelength-division multiplexing)technology,OAM multiplexing technology has attracted widespread interest and made remarkable progress in high-speed and large-capacity optical signal transmission.It is worth noting that,optical signal processing is also the key technology of optical communication systems in addition to optical signal transmission.A complete OAM-based optical communication network system includes both OAM multiplexing transmission along network links and OAM signal processing at network nodes.The research progress of optical signal processing with OAM were reviewed,and different optical signal processing functions with OAM and the various OAM-based optical signal processing technologies in different application scenarios were comprehensively summarized.Meanwhile,the future development trend of optical signal processing with OAM was analyzed and its prospect was discussed.The optical signal processing technologies with OAM improve the OAM-based space-division multiplexing optical communication systems,which is expected to provide solutions for realizing efficient and flexible information management of OAM and addressing the new capacity crunch of optical communications.