Partially coherent beam combination technology for generating disturbance resistant multiplexed orbital angular momentum beams

Long-distance, free space applications of orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams are limited by power loss and environmental turbulence. Although there have been many studies on the generation of high-power OAM beams, it is difficult to create a generated beam that is resistant to wander disturbance in low coherence conditions, let alone maintain the multiplexing of the OAM modes. In this work, we propose a partially coherent beam combining technology that enables generation of disturbance resistant and high-power OAM beams by controlling the spatial correlation of the light field with a partially coherent beam array. The OAM state of the generated beam can be transformed between single mode and multimode as designed. A multiplexed correlation vortex, which has low coherence and contains multiple spectral bands in OAM space, is produced experimentally. In a wander environment, the scintillation index and the relative power fluctuation of the multiplexed correlation vortex beam are reduced to 41% and 52% of those of completely coherent beams, respectively. These results represent a new methodology for OAM mode generation and show great potential for applications in complex environments.