Magnetic-field-induced rotation of light with orbital angular momentum

Abstract

Light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) has attractive applications in the fields of precise optical measurements and high capacity optical communications. We study the rotation of a light beam propagating in warm 87Rb atomic vapor using a method based on magnetic-field-induced circular birefringence. The dependence of the rotation angle on the magnetic field makes it appropriate for weak magnetic field measurements. We quote a detailed theoretical description that agrees well with the experimental observations. The experiment shown here provides a method to measure the magnetic field intensity precisely and expands the application of OAM-carrying light. This technique has advantage in measurement of magnetic field weaker than 0.5 Gauss, and the precision we achieved is 0.8 mGauss.