Revisiting Orbital Angular Momentum Beams: Fundamentals, Reflectarray Generation, and Novel Antenna Applications

Abstract

Inspired by the unique and compelling traits of orbital angular momentum (OAM) laser beams, such as the twisted wavefront and annular-shaped intensity pattern, we use this work to design antennas generating OAM beams at radio frequency (RF) and, especially, to tailor the antennas' far-field characteristics. We demonstrate that the reflectarray antenna is an efficient apparatus to generate and manipulate OAMcarrying beams at RF.