Transformation of orbital angular momentum to spin angular momentum of optical vortices

Transformation of Orbital Angular Momentum to Spin Angular Momentum of Optical Vortices An optical vortex has an interesting property of undefined phase singularity in the middle of the beam around which it has a spiral phase wave front. They have a unique feature to carry orbital angular momentum. Light of circular polarization has a different quality of carrying spin angular momentum. Despite the fact that both of these quantities are a form of angular momentum, their physical properties are not the same. In this work, I present methods for light vortices formation and analysis. I also present light beams of inhomogeneous polarization and their generation methods and most importantly I provide an introduction to angular momentum of light and its’ properties which can be divided into spin and orbital parts. It can be expected that some kind of spin-orbit interaction may occur under certain circumstances. One of those occasions is a tight focusing of optical fields. In this experiment, a light vortex with a topological charge of m=+1 and linear polarization was formed and its polarization was converted to azimuthal or radial using a specialize polarization converter. Then these vortices were focused and analyzed using an interference with a reference Gaussian beam. The results show that a transformation from orbital angular momentum to spin angular momentum occurs under these conditions