Engineering of orbital angular momentum supermodes in coupled optical waveguides

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate the existence of orbital angular momentum (OAM) bright and dark supermodes in a three-evanescently coupled cylindrical waveguides system. Bright and dark supermodes are characterized by their coupling and decoupling from one of the waveguides, respectively. In addition, we demonstrate that complex couplings between modes of different waveguides appear naturally due to the characteristic spiral phase-front of OAM modes in two-dimensional configurations where the waveguides are arranged forming a triangle. Finally, by adding dissipation to the waveguide uncoupled to the dark supermode, we are able to filter this supermode out, allowing for the design of OAM mode cloners and inverters.