Spatiotemporal vortex beams and angular momentum

Abstract

We present a space-time generalization of the known spatial (monochromatic) wave vortex beams carrying intrinsic orbital angular momentum (OAM) along the propagation direction. Generic spatiotemporal vortex beams are polychromatic and can carry intrinsic OAM at an arbitrary angle to the mean momentum. Applying either (i) a transverse wave-vector shift or (ii) a Lorentz boost to a monochromatic Bessel beam, we construct a family of either (i) time-diffracting or (ii) nondiffracting spatiotemporal Bessel beams, which are exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon wave equations. The proposed spatiotemporal OAM states are able to describe either photon or electron vortex states (both relativistic and nonrelativistic) and have potential applications in particle collisions, optics of moving media, quantum communications, and astrophysics.