Optical implementation of the vortex information channel

Recently, composed vortex fields generated by means of a spatial light modulator working in a dynamical regime have been examined as prospective information carriers. In this paper, an advanced optical set-up utilizing vortices for transfer of information is proposed and experimentally verified. Its operation is based on a sophisticated design of phase-only masks enabling information encoding and decoding. In the proposed vortex communication channel, the photolithographically prepared masks are used for generation of a composed vortex field carrying information. Dynamics of information encoding and decoding is achieved by switching of an array of light sources illuminating the phase masks.