Correlation-induced orbital angular momentum changes

Abstract

We demonstrate that the orbital angular momentum (OAM) flux density of a paraxial light beam can change on propagation in free space. These changes are entirely due to the spatial coherence state of the source, and the effect is analogous to correlation-induced changes in the intensity, spectrum, and polarization of a beam. The use of the source coherence state to control the width, shape, and transverse shifts of the OAM flux density is demonstrated with numerical examples.