Microwave-induced orbital angular momentum transfer

Abstract

The microwave-induced orbital angular momentum (OAM) transfer from a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam to a weak plane-wave is studied in a closed-loop four-level ladder-type atomic system. The analytical investigation shows that the generated fourth field is an LG beam with the same OAM of the applied LG field. Moreover, the microwave-induced subluminal generated pulse can be switched to the superluminal one only by changing the relative phase of applied fields. It is shown that the OAM transfer in subluminal regime is accompanied by a slightly absorption, however, it switches to the slightly gain in superluminal regime. The transfer of light's OAM and control of the group velocity of the generated pulse can prepare a high-dimensional Hilbert space which has a major role in quantum communication and information processing.