Twisted Photons Applications of Light with Orbital Angular Momentum

Edited by two renowned players in this vibrant and fast-moving field, this monograph fills a gap in the literature by concentrating on applications of the OAM. Examples include: * The OAM of a light beam * Generation and detection of the OAM * The rotational frequency shift * Transfer of OAM to trapped particles * Torques in liquid crystals * Micro-machines using the OAM of light * Applications to microfluidics * Digital spiral imaging * Applications to astrophysics * Edge contrast enhancement in light microscopy * The optical vortex coronograph * OAM of single photons * Bose-Einstein Condensation * Applications in atomic physics For physicists, solid state physicists, materials scientists, astronomers and those working in the optical industry.

Juan P. Torres is one of the group leaders of ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, where he conducts research in nonlinear and quantum optics. He also holds a position as associate professor at the Technical University of Catalonia where he teaches in photonics and electrical engineering. Professor Torres obtained his PhD in Science from the Technical University of Catalonia and afterwards held a post-doctoral position at the University of California at Berkeley. He has authored about 100 articles and received an award for young investigators from the Government of Catalonia in 2002.

Lluis Torner is the founding Director of ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, and professor of photonics at the Technical University of Catalonia. He conducts research and innovation in photonics, with emphasis on fundamentals and applications of nonlinear optics, optical vortices and optical solitons. He has co-authored more than 300 articles in scienti? c journals. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the European Optical Society and the European Physical Society, and he currently serves as President of the Association of Research Institutions of Catalonia.

- The Orbital Angular Momentum of Light: An Introduction
- Vortex Flow of Light: ``Spin?? and ``Orbital?? Flows in a Circularly Polarized Paraxial Beam
- Helically Phased Beams, and Analogies with Polarization
- Trapping and Rotation of Particles in Light Fields with Embedded Optical Vortices
- Optical Torquesin Liquid Crystals
- Driving Optical Micromachines with Orbital Angular Momentum
- Rotational Optical Micromanipulation with Specific Shapes Built by Photopolymerization
- Spiral Phase Contrast Microscopy
- Applications of Electromagnetic OAM in Astrophysics and Space Physics Studies
- Optical Vortex Cat States and their Utility for Creating Macroscopic Superpositions of Persistent Flows
- Experimental Control of the Orbital Angular Momentum of Single and Entangled Photons
- Rotating Atoms with Light