Phase Conjugation and Mode Conversion in Stimulated Parametric Down-Conversion with Orbital Angular Momentum: a Geometrical Interpretation

We report on an experiment that investigates the spatial mode conversion in the process of parametric down-conversion seeded by a light beam in a superposition of orbital angular momentum modes. This process is interpreted in terms of a geometric representation of first-order spatial modes in a Poincare sphere, providing an intuitive image of the phase conjugation and the topological charge conservation. We also make a comparison with the analogous phenomenon for optical parametric oscillators.