Probing the fractional topological charge of a vortex light beam by using dynamic angular double slits

Abstract

Vortex beams with fractional topological charge (FTC) have many special characteristics and novel applications. However, one of the obstacles for their application is the difficulty of precisely determining the FTC of fractional vortex beams. We find that when a vortex beam with an FTC illuminates a dynamic angular double slit (ADS), the far-field interference patterns that include the information of the FTC of the beam at the angular bisector direction of the ADS vary periodically. Based on this property, a simple dynamic ADS device and data fitting method can be used to precisely measure the FTC of a vortex light beam with an error of less than 5%.