Superposition of Optical Vortices

Nathan Smiley '05

Advisor:  Dr. Enrique Galvez

High-order laser modes exhibit interesting properties.  We modeled mathematically the fundamental characteristics of some of these modes and their behavior when superimposed on each other, as well as the behavior of phase vortices in Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes.  We created LG modes in the lab, combined modes of different order, and examined the vortices in the resulting patterns.