Orbital Angular Momentum generation in infrared with Holographic Optical Elements

Optical vortices are of interest in the infrared range for applications in the fields of optical fiber communications and femtosecond laser pulses. Among the current techniques used to generate optical vortices, the use of a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) stands out. However, SLMs are expensive devices, they present a low damage threshold and do not allow the development of compact systems. A solution to this is to record a Holographic Optical Element (HOE) with the interference of two beams, one of them carrying an optical vortex. Available holographic recording materials, such as photopolymer and dichromated gelatin, are only sensitive to visible light. Thus, the recording parameters need to be optimized for reconstruction with a different wavelength. In this contribution, we explore the use of HOEs to generate optical vortices with infrared light, and present experimental results with commercial recording materials that validate the viability of the method.