Orbital Angular Momentum Exchange in the Interaction of Twisted Light with Molecules

In the interaction of molecules with light endowed with orbital angular momentum, an exchange of orbital angular momentum in an electric dipole transition occurs only between the light and the center of mass motion; i.e., internal “electronic-type” motion does not participate in any exchange of orbital angular momentum in a dipole transition. A quadrupole transition is the lowest electric multipolar process in which an exchange of orbital angular momentum can occur between the light, the internal motion, and the center of mass motion. This rules out experiments seeking to observe exchange of orbital angular momentum between light beams and the internal motion in electric dipole transitions.

Figure 1

The particle position vectors and that of the center of mass for the two-particle model of the molecule. The projections of these vectors in the $x\mathrm{\text{−}}y$ plane are also shown.

Figure 2

The vector projections in the $x\mathrm{\text{−}}y$ plane and the corresponding azimuthal angles for the vectors ${\mathbf{R}}_{\parallel }$, $\lambda m_2{\mathbf{q}}_{\parallel }/M$ and their sum ${\mathbf{R}}_{\parallel }+\lambda m_2{\mathbf{q}}_{\parallel }/M$ in the context of $H_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}}^{(1)}$.