2008/04/09 by Gabriel Molina‐Terriza, Gabriel Molina-Terriza, Molina-Terriza, Gabriel
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics) #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0804.1494
arxiv created 2008/04/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/04/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this letter a general method for expanding paraxial beams into multipolar electromagnetic fields is presented. This method is applied to the expansion of paraxial modes with orbital angular momentum (OAM), showing how the paraxial OAM is related to the general angular momentum of an electromagnetic wave. This method can be extended to quasi-paraxial beams, i.e. highly focused laser beams. Some applications to the control of electronic transitions in atoms are discussed.