Arbitrary higher-order optical spatial state generation by using spontaneously broken degeneracy modes in helically twisted ring-core hole assisted fibers.

A helically twisted ring-core hole assisted fiber (HAF) is proposed for an arbitrary higher-order spatial state generation. In usual circular core fibers, HE and EH modes are degenerate and have vector field distributions. We will show the degeneracy of these modes having specific azimuthal mode order is lifted by periodically placing air-holes around the core with specific symmetry while preserving their vector field distributions. It is called spontaneously broken degeneracy (SBD) in this paper. Azimuthal order of the SBD modes can be changed with the arrangement of surrounding air-holes. By using this SBD modes, it is shown that arbitrary higher-order spatial state generation, including orbital angular momentum (OAM) state, is possible based on a geometric phase existing in twisted fibers. Furthermore, by using periodically inverted twisting, efficient OAM state generation is possible by accumulating the geometric phase. The topological charge can be changed by changing the arrangement of surrounding air-holes. Since the mechanism does not depend on a phase matching, such as a long-period grating, but on a topological effect, the wavelength dependence is very small, leading to novel and efficient mechanism for the manipulation of the spatial state of the light.