Physics

Optical vortex

Orbital angular momentum of light

Polymer chemistry

Symmetry (geometry)

Mathematics

Total angular momentum quantum number

Mechanics

Optics

Vortex

Quasiparticle

Philosophy

Angular momentum

Dispersion (optics)

Group velocity

Chemistry

Geometry

Space (punctuation)

Linguistics

Superconductivity

Quantum mechanics

Modal

Classical mechanics

Physical Review Letters

We identify a class of modal solutions for spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) electromagnetic pulses propagating in dispersive media with orbital angular momentum (OAM) orthogonal to propagation. We find that symmetric STOVs in vacuum can carry half-integer intrinsic OAM; for general asymmetric STOVs in a dispersive medium, the OAM is quantized in integer multiples of a parameter that depends on the STOV symmetry and the group velocity dispersion. Our results suggest that STOVs propagating in dispersive media are accompanied by a polaritonlike quasiparticle. The modal theory is in excellent agreement with measurements of free space propagation of STOVs.

Mode Structure and Orbital Angular Momentum of Spatiotemporal Optical Vortex Pulses